


Sea Glass

by Rohad



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Gay, Lesbians, Past Abuse, Pirate AU, Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:02:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25604767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: Sea glass was pretty, and it had its uses, but it was also sharp, and if you weren't careful, it would cut you.They were going to come to an understanding or kill each other trying.
Relationships: Blue Diamond/Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe), bellow diamond - Relationship
Comments: 45
Kudos: 107





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The Bellow pirate AU that some people did ask for.

The gentle rocking of the ship made all the glass bottles and knickknacks clack together quietly on their shelves, a constant and soothing background noise over the sound of the sea and the gulls outside her window.

The storm they had been sailing through for the last three days had finally passed over and they could finally pull into port to restock their supplies and go ashore. They had cut it a little too close on their last trip and she was going to correct that this time, she’s already made some allowances in their rations. 

Captain Marigold ‘Yellow Diamond’ stood, leaning over her desk, scouring the contents of the map. She was already plotting their next course, her compass moving slowly and deliberately along a newly marked path across the map. 

If they left the port by mid-morning tomorrow, the wind would be pushing from the perfect direction to take them just where they needed to be. 

A lone, independent merchant ship carrying precious metals and silk was set to sail for Caracas in the morning from St. Lucia; they were going to take it. She already had a buyer for all the silk. The metal would be easy enough to sell in the markets of Aruba. 

Rolls of parchment sat on her desk, carefully rolled up and set off on either side of the map, several star charts she had been consulting, and some letters that needed to be mailed off while they were in port. She moved them into envelopes and sealed them with the nearby candle, pressing her signet ring into the soft, red wax. 

Straitening up, she rolled her shoulders and grumbled at the stiffness that had settled in her neck. She moved to the large wooden wardrobe and threw open the doors and pulled off the grubby gray shirt she had been wearing while doing chores around her quarters and pulled out the freshly washed white one, its newly starched sleeves were too puffy for her but the coat would fix that.

Strapping her pistol and saber around her waist, she pulled on the black and gold-trimmed long coat, stuffing the sealed letters into her pockets as she strutted past her desk, boots thumping rhythmically on the floorboards. She whipped the tricorne hat off the hook by the door and situated it carefully over her short flaxen locks as she stepped out onto the deck. 

The bright sun overhead made her squint as she walked across the deck, several deckhands nearby saw her and shouted greetings.

“Pulling into port now, Cap’n” A voice called from the rigging above. She only nodded, watching as the shore grew closer. The golden flag, a lightning bolt emblazoned in the middle flapped in the wind. 

She looked carefully over the ships pulled into port and felt her shoulders loosen up when she didn’t spot the one she was looking for.

Small miracles.

“Jasper, take some of the crew and restock all the things on this list.” She handed a rolled-up bit of parchment over to her first mate. “We need to be prepared for the voyage to Caracus. 

“Aye, Cap’n” The large sailor hurried off with the list as some men lowered the gangplank onto the pier. She stopped at the top and turned to face the ship, most of her crew watching her as they worked.

“I want this ship scrubbed from stem to stern by sundown, then to the tavern!” 

“Aye aye Captain.” was the chorus of answers before she turned on heel and strutted down the plank, feet finally touching solid land for the first time in weeks. 

She pulled the pocket watch out of her coat and looked at the hands. She had plenty of time to take care of her errands before the crew scurried off to the tavern to get drunk enough to fall while laying down. 

They needed it after the last trip and their close encounter with that royal frigate.

It had proven much too cumbersome to avoid The Cluster’s cannons though and had sunk to the bottom of the ocean like a rock. 

Yellow couldn’t help but grin to herself as she walked through town at the thought of the look on _her_ face when they had sailed by after sinking the royal pest. 

It honestly filled her with too much giddy delight, especially when she knew there would be consequences, but she just hadn’t been able to pass up the opportunity to show her up a little.

Those troubles would be something to deal with later.

By the time she’d delivered her letters and picked up a few personal parcels, the sun was starting to dip behind all the ships sitting in the harbor, casting their long shadows over the pier and a hazy orange glow over everything else.

She glanced out at the sea and could see another ship in the distance slowly pulling in to port, the setting sun, blocking it out in dark shadows. 

Yellow ignored it as she made her way to the tavern, the raucous sounds of drinking and merry-making could be heard before she had even stepped inside. 

Once she did a loud cheer of ‘Captain!” rose over the din. 

Her crew sat gathered around the place, flagons of piss poor beer and rum in one hand, dice or cards in the other. The locals seemed to be holed up in one corner of the place, keeping to themselves. 

A wise choice.

The crew of The Cluster often frequented this tavern between runs and it was fairly common knowledge that if you stayed out of their way they would leave you be in turn. 

Yellow sauntered up to the bar and sat on a grimy wooden stool that creaked under her weight. Within a minute, a flagon of dark, murky liquid was sat down in front of her by a tavern maid, who quickly made herself scarce. 

She took a long, deep drink of the liquid and it burned every inch of skin it touched all the way down. She let the fire fade before turning around to face her crew, standing from the stool to raise the flagon overhead.

“Drink till you’re blind, men!” she called and the roar that followed drowned out anything else as she sat a bag of gold pieces on the counter, which the barmaid quickly snatched up. 

They had their marching orders. 

An hour into the festivities the tavern doors burst open and while it didn’t go quiet, it did get quiet enough for Yellow to turn away from her drink and curse under her breath the second she did.

The subject of many a nightmare she had suffered was quickly strutting across the tavern straight for her, followed by a motley bunch of bilge rats she called a crew. 

Black leather boots thumped across the wooden floor in a steady rhythm that Yellow was unsure if it was her or her heart, accompanied by the quiet tinkling of metal. 

“I see you washed up on shore just fine,” she smirked up at her new companion. 

Captain Ciel ‘Blue Diamond’ leveled her with a long look, one hand resting on her hip as she looked down at the other pirate from beneath an ocean blue headscarf, tied neatly around a head of long, silver hair, several charms and braids intertwined within the locks. 

Yellow couldn't help but let her eyes trail past the other captain’s neck. Like usual, Blue was dressed in an off-white blouse that had entirely too many buttons left undone, and was it not for the cobalt colored corset cinched around her middle it would have been left entirely useless as a garment, even tucked into the black trousers she was wearing. 

She let her eyes focus back on Blue’s face, passing the gold and blue gemmed necklace hanging around her neck, the gemstone dipping into her cleavage as she leaned forward. 

Brows the same color as her hair had dipped between a pair of obviously annoyed cerulean eyes at the self-assured smirk on Yellow’s face.

“We didn’t need your help.” She finally said. “My crew is more than capable of taking on some royal navy rats.” 

“It certainly didn’t seem that way…,” Yellow smirked behind her drink, pleased by the annoyance shining in Blue’s eyes. “and we weren’t helping you,” she corrected, setting the drink back down on the table. “I saw an opportunity to take out a future nuisance, so I took it. If you were aided by that... it was an unfortunate coincidence,” she mumbled quietly, not even trying to contain the delight that was no doubt shining in her eyes.

Cerulean eyes narrowed but just as quickly as the look appeared, it vanished, replaced by a sultry smile. 

“Well, even if you didn’t intend to help, I feel like I owe you something…” She said over her shoulder as she turned and walked away; blonde brows furrowed quizically.

She didn’t like any part of that statement, nor the look that went along with it. 

The members of the two crews were intermingled among the tavern, drinking, and trading tales of their recent voyages, but all the while keeping an eye on the two captains. Nothing good ever came of the two of them interacting for too long.

Yellow sat drinking, on edge, now that Blue had disappeared with the unnerving parting words. 

Eventually, the edges of her vision weren’t as clear as they had been before and she felt a little lighter. The cheap rum at work. It was around this time that the band suddenly went quiet and she looked up in time to see Blue, bottle in hand standing on a table. 

“The oh so goodly Captain of The Cluster did The Menagerie a favor ereyesterday and I think it deserves a song, what about you lads?” She called and the tavern answered in a drunken cheer. 

She turned to the band and they quickly began to play a jaunty tune…

“If you need someone to swab your deck there’s only one pirate who can do the trick, call Yellow diamond!” Blue belted out and Yellow jerked, almost dropping her drink.

The crew of The Menagerie stomped and clapped as their captain hopped off the table and began moving through the room.

“When the rum has got you limp, call Yellow diamond!” The Cluster’s crew didn’t know what to do, the more sober ones, anyway. The drunkest unknowingly or unhearing of the lyrics clapped or sang along.

Yellow had a white-knuckle grip on the cup in her hand, watching the other captain twirl around the bar, drinking straight from the bottle between lyrics. She was seething on the inside, listening to Blue and her crew sing and roar with laughter while her crew sat looking at her uncertainly. 

“If the local whore won’t heed your word, call Yellow diamond!” The crowd cheered and suddenly Blue was moving toward her with that damnable little smile on her lips till she was standing at Yellow’s table and leaning forward on her hands, a litany of rings on her fingers that sparkled and shined in the light of the sconces on the walls. 

“The easiest pirate of them all, Yellow diamond!” She sang with a look on her face that spoke volumes. Both crews were watching her with wide eyes. 

Amber eyes flashed with barely contained rage. 

In a flurry of movement Yellow jumped up, knocking over the table and aiming her flintlock pistol straight at Blue. 

All sound in the tavern died in an instant and the little grin on Blue’s face had fallen away, but not to one of fear but shock. 

At the very least it shut her up, but now Yellow was at an impasse. 

Though Blue was soon to fix that.

Her look of shock quickly morphed into one of deadly seriousness.

"Well?" She asked taking a step forward pressing the muzzle of the pistol against her chest. "Are you going to fire or not?" Her voice was barely above a whisper. 

Yellow said nothing and made no move to pull the trigger.

"Need some help? I'll start…," she said it so lowly that Yellow wasn't even sure she had heard her when suddenly her pistol was knocked aside and her world became a wash of white light and pain, quickly followed by the thundering of furniture being thrown and battle cries all around. 

She opened her eyes just in time to see Blue rear back for another punch but this time was ready and caught the fist as it sailed through the air, jerking the other captain forward on to her raised knee as their crews brawled around them. 

A table flew through the air and splintered into a thousand pieces against the wall raining wood shrapnel down around them, Yellow closed her eyes against the debris just long enough for Blue to lunge forward, tackling her to the ground just as one man was thrown overhead sailing straight into the bar shattering several bottles.

Punches were thrown and teeth fell to the floor among the blood and rum as the two crews duked it out.

Yellow scowled trying to grab the other captain's flailing fists as she straddled her waist. Her hat had flown off somewhere and Blue’s headscarf was askew atop her head, silver hair a wild mess as they rolled across the grimy floor, somehow not getting trampled by their men.

With a thrust of her hips, she managed to throw the smaller woman off her, twisting an arm behind her back that made Blue cry out, a sound that elicited emotions in Yellow that she had not expected, allowing Blue the moment needed to ram the back of her head into the blonde’s face. 

“Shit!” She cursed, hands flying to her nose and eyes watering.

Suddenly she was tackled again, Blue flying into her midsection and sending them both reeling through the tavern door and out into the dirt. 

Yellow managed to kick away from Blue long enough to scramble to her feet just as she did. 

With a low growl, she lunged forward, grabbing both her wrists in an iron grip, and shoved her back against the side of the building. They’d stumbled half into the alley beside the tavern, the roaring of the fighting inside raged on without them. 

Blue winced as her back hit the wall with a low thud. She hissed before looking up at the taller woman looming over her, wrists caught in her iron grip.

They both stood their, muscles taught, red-faced, and panting.

Blue could feel the blonde’s hot breath on her face, those amber eyes flickered in the low, distant light. 

She wouldn’t be able to explain what came over her tomorrow.

She lunged forward, capturing Yellows mouth in a sudden searing kiss that made the blonde’s grip go slack. 

She should have taken the opportunity to punch the blond pirate again, but instead, she just dug her fingers in those golden hairs and pulled Yellow closer to her, deepening the kiss. 

Calloused hands wrapped around her waist and suddenly she was pulled flush against the tall, solid form of her greatest rival and she didn’t think anything of it.

Yellow pulled away but before Blue could even comprehend what was happening that mouth was on her neck, biting at the skin near her pulse and it felt like her legs were going to fold beneath her.

Surely the only thing keeping her upright now was Yellow’s iron grip on her hips. 

She moaned, tugging on the taller captain’s short locks, eliciting a growl from her that shot heat all through Blue’s body. 

“Marigold…” She mumbled with a heavy tongue before the blonde took hostage of her mouth again, which Blue allowed gladly.

“Blue!” A voice called and a petite woman with short curly hair slid around the corner, stopping to stare at them with wide eyes.

Blue jerked out of the embrace at the sound of her sister’s voice. Turning to look at her with wide eyes. It was fairly dark, she wasn’t sure just how much her sister had or could see.

She turned back to Yellow, who was looking back at her with wide eyes, mouth hanging open in clear shock at what had just transpired.

Making a quick decision she reared back and punched the blonde square in the nose.

Yellow cried out, hands flying to her face as blood began to drip from her nose.

Blue took off down the alley, grabbing her sister’s hand as she passed, pulling her along.

“What the hell was that?” Rose asked as Blue pulled them along back toward the docks to the ship.

“Later,” she huffed, pulling her down the dock. 

She still needed to decide that for herself.

Yellow cursed to herself as she held her hopefully not broken nose as blood dripped down her face and onto her good white shirt. 

That annoyed her more than anything else…, well, not by half, but it was on her list. 

The sounds of fighting inside the tavern seemed to have died down as she stepped inside, and grabbed her hat off the floor before raising her pistol and firing a single shot into the ceiling, bringing all the brawling to an end.

Most of the remaining members of The Menagerie’s crew scampered out of the tavern, climbing out through the windows of the holes they had bashed through the walls when their Captain did not reappear.

“Cap’n!” Jasper was at her side within a moment, a black eye already forming and a split lip dribbling blood down her chin.

“Gather the crew and get back to the ship!” Yellow barked, kicking a drunken deckhand laying near her feet. ‘We set out at daybreak!” With that she turned and stomped back to the ship, face set in a stony glare. 

“You heard the Cap’n!” Jasper’s loud, gravelly voice bellowed. 

Yellow wiped at the blood dripping across her mouth, but even it’s salty tang couldn’t make her forget the way Blue’s lips had tasted.


	2. Chapter 2

"Up an at 'em!" 

The curtains were whipped aside and the window thrown open with a bang, letting bright sunlight fill the cabin along with the smells and sounds of the sea. The shouting and cursing of the men on deck along with the crashing of waves and screaming of the gulls. 

Blue groaned from her place laying splayed out on her bed in her quarters. The sunlight was shining on her face, she rolled over to bury her face in the pillows, preferring the stale smell to the blinding light on her face.

“This ship ain’t gonna captain itself…” Rose stood at her bedside, hands on her hips as she watched her sister try to smother herself in the goosedown pillows, and rolled her eyes.

While this was the usual act after Blue had spent a hard night drinking, she also knew the captain was definitely avoiding her, especially after what she was fairly certain she had seen outside the tavern last night.

The fearsome Blue Diamond practically melted up against her most renowned rival in a lip lock that made Rose flush a little, and she had seen more than a thing or two after all their years on the high seas. The crew was not made up of the most modest men and women who ever sailed the ocean. 

The thought was so ridiculous she wasn’t entirely sure that was what she had seen… even as she watched it happen, followed by Blue decking the captain of The Cluster in the nose.

It had been a very confusing evening all in all.

The crew had limped back to the ship not long after they had, and Rose had watched her sister boost their bruised morale with a yarn of how she’d left Yellow Diamond battered and bruised behind the tavern.

She supposed that technically, that was true, even if she had left out some important parts.

She had only watched silently.

Blue just grumbled, not moving from her place laying face down in the bed. 

“If you don’t get up were going to miss out on that merchant ship headed for Caracas… and Yellow Diamond is going to make off with all the valuables,” she tacked on when Blue still made no motion to get up. 

That did cause a reaction.

Suddenly, Blue pushed herself up, eyes still squinted against the sunlight as she threw herself out of the bed and moved to the vanity pushed against one wall and started to brush out her hair, grumbling under her breath the entire time. 

“What’s our bearing?” She asked, not looking at Rose but staring into the mirror.

“At our current clip we should intercept it by midday, but The Cluster left much earlier, even if we’re faster we’ll be there about the same time…” She said, and could hear Blue curse under her breath, her hand pausing midway through her hair before continuing on,

They sat there in quiet for a long moment before Rose decided to bite the bullet.

“Are you going to tell me what that was about last night?” She finally asked and this time Blue did stop.

“That’s hardly the first time I’ve gotten besotted and started a row in a tavern…,” she huffed.

“That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it…” Rose crossed her arms, the sleeves of her blouse were pushed up to her elbows and her boots thumped quietly on the floor as she walked up behind Blue to look at her sister’s eyes in the mirror’s reflection. She suddenly stopped, unfolding her arms as a thought struck her, a hand wrapped tightly around the polished, ivory handle of the dagger at her waist.

“Did that... scurvy lout force herself on you?’ Rose suddenly asked, cerulean eyes popped open wide and Blue spun around to face her.

“What? No!” She assured her sister, who relaxed somewhat. Honestly, that would have been even more unbelievable to Rose.

Yellow Diamond was a terror on the sea but she had a reputation for honor that few could deny. She didn’t allow her crew to do as they pleased with hostages, women, and children on a boat they boarded were left at peace while they robbed it blind, unless they decided to fight back and she only killed enough to get her point across, which never took much. Very rarely did tales of Yellow Diamond massacring a ship down to it’s last ever float around the port taverns; royal navy ships being the exception. 

That being said, she was quite well known for pulling her pistol on anything that displeased her. Rose had seen the towering blonde shoot a man for making a lewd gesture at her. 

Shoot first ask questions never was the general policy aboard The Cluster. 

The rumor was that there was a boatswain on her crew that regularly took the brunt of Yellow’s displeasure by being thrown overboard whenever the captain felt the inclination, only to be fished back out and carry on about his day. 

She often wondered if it was true. 

Knowing Yellow, it probably was. 

“Yellow would never do that.” Blue huffed, turning back to the mirror, unwavering certainty in her words.

“So you were just letting the one person you hate most in all the seven seas stick her tongue down your throat?” Rose crossed her arms, watching Blue’s face turn blood red. 

“I never said I hated Yellow Diamond.” Blue sniffed, obviously avoiding the rest of that accusation. 

“I think you had all of the Caribbean fooled…,” Rose deadpanned and Blue rolled her eyes.

“She’s the one person I’ve never been able to crack…” She said and it was Roses turn to roll her eyes. 

Blue had a reputation of her own. 

For being a flirt. 

No one could deny that the captain of The Menagerie was beautiful, a veritable siren of the sea, but Blue knew it too and had always taken a keen delight in being able to fluster her friends and enemies alike; especially her enemies. It was the icing on the cake of stealing from or defeating them in battle; to throw them a wink or a flirty smile and watch them fall further all over themselves. 

She never had to lay a single finger on them, nor had she, to elicit a reaction.

She had an unbroken record of leaving men and women alike a floundering mess... until she had crossed paths with Yellow for the first time, years ago when they had both attempted to finish off a royal galleon carrying a small fortune in silver that a sudden storm had left limping along. 

The blue-eyed captain hadn’t known how to react when Yellow brushed of her flirtatious words, her face, hard as stone and pistol leveled at her. 

Ever since the two had been in a constant push and pull with the other. Blue making it her mission in life to break the stony facade of the infamous golden pirate. To date, it had yet to happen; she kept trying. 

“You certainly got a reaction out of her last night.” Rose sighed. “I think that’s the first time she’s ever pulled her gun on you since the first time you met.” 

“Frothing rage is hardly new from ol’ Yello’,” Blue laughed. “I might have pushed a little too hard last night…,” she admitted sheepishly. “Besides, we both knew that’s not the reaction I’m looking for.” 

“I don’t understand your need to get under her skin…” Rose admitted, making a face. Blue smiled to herself in the mirror.

“She’s challenging…,” she said simply, standing from her vanity and flipping a lock of silver hair over her shoulder. “I like that.” She turned to face Rose.

Rose doubted that was the entirety of it, but Blue didn’t look like she was going to say anything else about the matter. 

“And outside the tavern, last night?” An eyebrow popped up questioningly. 

Blue paused, thinking about what to say.

All she could think about was the unshakable grip of Yellow’s hands on her wrists as she held her, pressed flush against the rough wood of the tavern wall.

Amber eyes set in a sharp glare as she loomed over her, hot breath fanning out on her face and every nerve in her body was ablaze.

Even more so when the blonde had wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled her in flush against her.

The poet shirt and loose coat belied how rock solid the blonde was beneath; arms of corded muscle.

She still tingled with the memory

"Blue!" 

Blue snapped out of her thoughts as her sister called her name, snapping her fingers in front of her face.

"Ahh, I was lost in thought…," she mumbled.

"I could tell… your red as a whore's lips." She grinned as Blue spun around to look at her face in the mirror. 

"Whatever could you have been thinking about I wonder…" she couldn't help but smirk. “So what, did you kiss her just to try and fluster her? Your calling card was always that you didn’t have to touch them to do that.” Rose set her fist on her hip, the hanging beads dangling from the sheer magenta fabric wrapped around her waist over her breeches jingled with the movement. “ 

“I… don’t know.” Blue finally admitted, glancing at Rose over her shoulder. “I… couldn’t help myself.” She shrugged.

“Well…” Rose started after a long uncomfortable pause. “She didn’t seem to mind if your neck is any clue.” 

“My neck?” Blue leaned in closer to the mirror and immediately spotted the large purple and blue bruise on the side of her throat and her face was again a dark maroon color. 

“I don’t know how you missed that…” Rose snorted at the scandalized look on the captain’s face. 

After looking at the bruise for a long moment was when Blue had a sudden epiphany. 

Her sister was right.

Rather than taking the opportunity to shoot her, or toss her off the pier, Yellow had been kissing her back.

Snarling, glaring, shoot first ask questions never, Yellow Diamond. 

She wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

“As many quarrels as the two of you have had, I’m surprised that’s only the second time she’s ever pulled a pistol on you and never shot you… I’ve seen her shoot at members of her own crew...,” Rose grumbled as she turned and walked out of Blue’s quarters. 

Blue rubbed at the bruise, staring silently back at herself in the mirror.

~ ~ ~ 

“Well, it’s not broken.” The ship surgeon gruffed after she’d finished looking at Yellow’s nose.

Yellow only grunted at the assessment.

At least there was that.

“The bruises should clear up on their own soon enough. Otherwise, you’re in good health” The grizzled, old woman said, turning away from the captain, her silent way of dismissing her. Yellow grunted as she walked out of the surgeon’s quarters.

She was probably the only person on the ship that could get away with talking to Yellow that way, and it was because she knew that without her, the rest of the crew, Yellow included would be adrift without a paddle, as many scuffles as they got into. 

Yellow glared at everything and everyone she passed as she headed up to the deck. 

She was angry… and confused.

She had gone over the previous evening at least a hundred times in her head and still couldn’t understand how one minute she was being punched in the face and the next being kissed breathless…

Then punched again!

Her pride and nose throbbed with the thought.

She growled to herself.

In all her years sailing she had never met anyone as vexing as Blue Diamond. The woman was a constant thorn in her side, ever since they had met. She was just as brazen even then.

She’d never forget when they had almost finished sinking that galleon when The Menagerie had appeared out of nowhere and boarded the vessel they were already holding. 

She pulled her pistol on the silver-haired captain who had only smiled coquettishly and cocked a hip. 

_“Ah, the infamous Yellow Diamond. It’s a pleasure.” she winked_

It had taken everything Yellow had not too drop her pistol at the salacious tone and look leveled on her. She’d only snarled in response, wiping the look right off Blue’s face.

She’d seemed almost confused at the time. 

It was later when she began hearing the tales of Blue that she finally understood how Blue liked to toy with her enemies by using her beauty and charm to goad, or further humiliate them.

Yellow wasn’t about to give the other pirate the satisfaction of letting her see how she got under her skin. She was always careful to maintain a cool facade when the other woman was around, no matter how bawdy her comments could be. 

That of course didn’t mean that occasionally Blue wouldn’t say or do something that would leave Yellow burning up on the inside. 

Yellow would be a fool not to admit that Blue was a sore sight on the seas. She could give any siren a run for their money. She moved like a cat, light, quiet, and sure of every step she took; never bothered by the chaos around her and her quick wit and charm was unparalleled. 

Not even under duress would Yellow admit to any of that, nor her begrudging respect for a woman as ruthless and exacting as she was beautiful; when she needed to be. 

Blue was always in the thick of things with her crew, pistol, and saber flailing, she was well known for going toe to toe with any man and beating him to a bloody mess, as well as her treatment of her crew; their unwavering loyalty a silent testament to that. 

When Yellow stepped out into the harsh light above she squinted, her head still throbbed from all the drink the night before. 

Not too mention the multiple blows to the face she had taken. 

“Captain on deck!” Someone shouted and she grunted, waving a hand in dismissal at the calls from her crew as she headed up the steps to the helm.

“Heading?” She demanded without preamble as she walked up to the wheel. Jasper rattled off some numbers and Yellow hummed. They should be catching up to the merchant ship within the hour if they kept up this clip.

After the last few days, they could use an easy score, it would do wonders for the morale on board, and help her take her mind off her suddenly confusing and muddied relationship with Blue. 

She could feel the crewmates milling about around her looking at her bruised face and barely closed split lip and growled, making them scatter quickly. 

“Captain?” She turned to look at a large grimy man with a faded jolly roger inked atop his shiny head and holding a spyglass. He’d been on Yellow’s crew since she’d gained The Cluster years ago. 

“What Joe?” she sighed.

“Theirs uh… a ship coming up on the starboard stern…” He shared a nervous glance with Jasper at the helm.

Yellow stomped over and took the offered spyglass, holding it up and looking out at the horizon behind them. A ship was ever so slowly gaining on them.

A large, familiar, sloop, flying a bright blue flag with three white diamonds at its center.

Yellow scowled behind the spyglass, teeth grit together as she exhaled deeply

“It’s Blue Diamond, Cap’n…” Joe said and amber eyes immediately whipped to the boatswain. 

In a flash, she had grabbed the man by the front of the shirt and flipped him over the railing into the water below with a loud snarl. 

Yellow closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning and walking back toward the stairs.

“Fish him out.” She growled to Jasper as she walked by, handing her first mate the spyglass.

“The usual overboard!” Jasper called out to the crew below, who quickly set about pulling the senior crewman out of the sea. 

Yellow growled to herself as she stomped across the deck. 

She had hoped to have at least a few weeks before she had to face Blue again, but apparently that wish was not to be with The Menagerie trailing behind them, no doubt Blue had also heard about the shipment heading for Caracas and was trying to beat her to it.

“Not today, Blue,” she sneered. After last night the captain was not in the mood to play nice. 

She had spent all night sleeplessly thinking about why, why had Blue kissed her, and more importantly, why had she pulled her close and wanted more?

She straightened, shaking off the exhaustion she felt and frowned. 

Anger, confusion, and exhaustion all mixed together in a storm of frustration in her gut. 

If Blue got in her way today she wouldn’t hesitate to sink The Menagerie right along with the merchant ship. 

~ ~ ~ 

Blue stared at the stern of The Cluster on the horizon through her spyglass and frowned. 

For the first time in all the years, she had been going round with Yellow over bounty and the like she felt a certain case of nerves after what had happened last night. 

She still didn't have an explanation in words for why she had foisted herself upon the blonde the way she had, nor for why Yellow had reacted in kind. 

After all this time she felt like she had a pretty good understanding of the surly captain.

Yellow did things for a reason. 

She just couldn't understand the reason this time.

Not that she had any room to talk considering that she couldn't even explain to herself why she had the sudden desire to kiss the rogue.

Blue could admit, Yellow was attractive. Tall, fair, with cheekbones and a tongue as sharp as her saber. 

One could always count on a cutting and witty remark from the captain of The Cluster and she was one of the very few out there that could stood toe to toe with her in every way and never flinch. 

Blue frowned to herself. She needed to be getting in the headspace for battle, not thinking about Yellow. 

She shook herself, closed the spyglass with a snap, turning to the portly woman on the helm, her hair tied up in two rolls upon her head.

"Keep the course, Holly. Stay right behind The Cluster." 

"Of course, captain." The older woman nodded.

Rose stood nearby, leaning against the railing and watching her sister carefully. 

She put up a good act for the crew, but the young master thief could tell that Blue was lost in thought. 

She glanced at the small black speck on the horizon that she knew was The Cluster and frowned. 

Something about all this was troubling her. There was an ill-feeling on the wind, she just knew it.


	3. Chapter 3

“Up ahead Cap’n!” The barrelman called from the crow’s nest, pointing off at the horizon. 

Yellow climbed back up to the helm, snatching the spyglass from her first-mates outstretched hand. 

She held the spyglass up to her eye and could see the merchant’s vessel. It was easy to spot, its hull was painted a vivid red that stood out starkly against the endless blue of the ocean and sky. 

The ship was docked about two-hundred yards out from a large island and Yellow frowned.

Why had they docked in the middle of the route? There was nothing out here except this island, and a lone merchant ship in too often pirate-infested waters, should have known better than to stop for any length of time on the open ocean. There were very few reasons for a merchant vessel, a small ship that held few cannons and crew, to stop where it was dangerous.

Usually, only when a man died would a ship dock to bury the soul, lest the foul rot infect the ship, but only if the voyage was going to be more than a few days from land, otherwise most ships waited until they docked. 

That, or if the ship was damaged and no longer capable of sailing; broken masts, torn sails, leaks, and the like. 

While she couldn’t tell if the ship was leaking the rest of it seemed in fine condition. 

Her mouth screwed up in thought as she lowered the spyglass. Something about this didn’t sit right with Yellow. 

“Captain, The Menagerie is fast approaching!” The call came down from up in the rigging and Yellow cursed, hand around the brass of the spyglass tightened into a white-knuckle grip. If she didn’t move now the decision would be made for her when Blue swooped in on the much swifter Menagerie.

The sloop was smaller and faster and thus by proxy, more maneuverable than The Cluster, a carrack, a much larger, heavier, and slower ship.

It also carried more crew, cargo, and most importantly, cannons. The Cluster was a fortress on the sea. It had been Yellow’s plan from the start when she had acquired the vessel. Where most pirates prioritized speed for a quick getaway or catching up to the larger cargo ships that carried valuables across the ocean to Europe, Yellow had opted for a full offense. 

She had to sacrifice speed but gained the ability to plow straight through most problems with heavy cannon fire.

A strategy had that had made her one of the most well-known pirates in the Caribbean. Something she did not intend to let Blue trample all over with her games, or whatever this was she suddenly found herself entangled in. She unconsciously ran her tongue over her lips.

The spyglass snapped close with the scrape of metal; the decision made.

“Stay the course!” she called and a chorus of “Aye captain!” sounded back at her. 

Today more then ever she needed to make a statement, to her crew and to Blue. 

She wasn’t going to let Blue run roughshod over her with her mind games or her body.

The blonde exhaled sharply, pocketing the spyglass and stomping back down the steps.

“Ready the cannons and prepare to board!’ she called out, walking toward the bow, pulling out her pistol, and checking both barrels were loaded. She had fired at a seagull that had been sitting outside the window of her quarters the day before; it had been annoying her.

Satisfied with the state of her gun she slipped it back into its holster before checking her sword once done she stood at the bow, trying to let the sound of the wind and water as they cut through it take some of the tension out of her shoulders.

Something about this bothered Yellow and she couldn’t put her finger on it. If she didn’t know better, she might think her now muddied thoughts about Blue was probably what it was.

She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. 

That was probably exactly what it was. She’d let the damnable captain manage to crawl under her skin. She was much too fixated on what had transpired last night, rather than the task at hand. 

Yellow scowled at the ocean in front of her as the bloody red merchant ship grew steadily closer on the horizon. 

They needed to make this quick. Board, subdue the crew, get the valuables and get out before Blue had a chance to get there.

Simple, in theory.

Once a ship realized who they were dealing with they didn’t normally offer up to much resistance, and even when they did Yellow had proven time and time again why it was better to just let her have her way than to lose your head over it. 

“Joe!” She looked over her shoulder. 

“Cap’n?” The bald boatswain jumped to attention, dropping everything else.

“Gather up the boarding party.” 

“Aye, Cap’n!” He scurried away and Yellow turned toward the stern, teeth grit at the ever-approaching form of The Menagerie. 

As they slowly pulled alongside the merchant ship, cannons at the ready, the yawning pit of uneasiness in Yellow’s gut grew.

Not a soul was on deck. It looked as if it had never been boarded to start with. 

Gangplanks were thrown down and she, along with twenty men boarded the other ship. Its sails flapped quietly in the breeze, the only sound on the ship besides the heavy footfalls of her crew as they scoured the deck.

~ ~ ~ 

“They’re boarding already…,” Rose said, looking through the spyglass and watching The Cluster, still a little way off as they climbed across to the merchant ship.

“What?” Blue asked, finally coming out of her quiet contemplation of the sea to look at her from her place leaning against the railing. “I didn’t hear any gunfire…” She stood up straight, eyes turning toward the two small dots she knew were the ships in question on the horizon

“Because they didn’t fire. The merchant ship is docked at that island and didn’t fire either…” Rose lowered the glass to look at her, the worry clearly written on her face.

Something about all of this made Rose uneasy and she told Blue as much as she took the spyglass out of her hands to look at the two ships in the distance. 

Blue pursed her lips as she lowered the glass.

Rose had always had a keen sense when it came to these things. She had never been able to explain it and Blue had never questioned it because very rarely was she wrong…

But it was still a possibility and Blue had a point to make, to herself and Yellow.

Though she wasn’t entirely sure what that point was yet. She just knew that she needed to do this. 

“Keep the course.” She turned to look at Holly, who nodded.

“Aye Cap’n” 

“Blue…,” Rose started, biting her lips. 

“It’ll be fine, Rose,” she assured the younger woman with a gentle smile but the thief’s stomach only twisted up more at her words.

~ ~ ~ 

“There’s no one here, captain…” a deckhand observed and the blonde frowned at the obvious statement. 

"Check the hold," Yellow ordered as she walked around on deck. It was eerily quiet. The gentle flapping of the sails in the wind hammered the silence home. The hair on the back of her neck was standing on end. Several large crates sat scattered across the deck as if the cargo had been thrown on board and then the ship cast adrift on its own.

What was going on here?

Everything about this set her on edge. 

“Only thing in the hold is cargo, Cap” One of her gunners popped his head out of the hold.

“Bring it up, load everything onto the ship, quickly!” she barked. She wanted off this ship and to be away from here as quickly as possible, and no longer just because Blue would be here soon. 

Everything about this set her her teeth on edge. 

Within an hour they had all the large crates on deck and were just starting to move them aboard The Cluster when The Menagerie sailed up on the other side of the merchant ship and Yellow scowled.

From this position, all her cannons were of little use unless she wanted to completely blast thorough the merchant ship first, which while in theory was possible would take time and all of their ammo.

Something Blue was well aware of. 

“To arms!” she snapped as the crew of The Menagerie lowered their planks and began to board the ship. Swords slid from their belts and pistols were cocked in anticipation. 

It seemed like the entirety of The Menagerie’s crew was now standing across from them on deck, they parted for Blue as she came sauntering across with a smirk, her sister trailing behind her.

“Well, if this isn’t a pleasant surprise.” She smiled coyly at the other captain as she stepped onto the deck with a quiet thump of her boots. “Fancy meeting you here, Yellow.” 

“Cut the shit, Blue,” Yellow snarled and the smile fell away from Blue’s face. Evidently she had pushed a little to hard last night if Yellow was still in this sour of a mood. “This is ours, so shove off,” she growled, pistol locked and loaded in her right hand, though it stayed down at her side. 

Blues lips pulled into a frown as she and Yellow shared a long unwavering look before she finally sighed, breaking the stare.

“Well, we are pirates… we’ll just take it.” In a flash, she’d pulled the dual pistols from her waist, aimed right at the gold rogue whose arm had whipped up at the first sign of movement. 

The two caused a chain reaction of pistols cocking and daggers being pulled free of their hiding places on both sides.

The air was still and tense as the two stared each other down, a certain trepidation all around, this was the most serious the two had ever engaged each other. Pride had guaranteed their face-off here, neither willing to back down.

Yellow swallowed thickly, finger locked tightly around the trigger.

The loud crash of wood made them all jump as the crates scattered around the deck burst open and men with muskets jumped out, leveling their weapons on the pirates. 

Their dark blue and gold uniforms told Yellow immediately what was happening as they spread to try and better surround the stunned pirates. 

It was a trap

The tip she’d been given was bait to lure her, and by extension Blue, who was well known to appear after Yellow often enough your chances were fifty-fifty of getting them both. 

Movement in the corner of her eye made her turn to look to see two galleons flying the white ensigns of the royal navy from their masts, coming around the bend of the island and heading straight for them. 

A man dressed in a royal navy officer uniform appeared, a piece of parchment in both hands 

“By order of the governor of port royal and the royal navy, Captains Marigold Faust, Ciel Doyle and their crews are hereby under arrest and ordered to surrender immediately!” He informed them, looking at the two captains with obvious contempt. 

Blue and Yellow glanced at each other.

Time was of the essence.

“I’d rather die,” Yellow sneered, and before anyone could blink had fired off a shot straight into the neck of the officer, who dropped to the ground, blood spurting from the new hole in his throat, bedlam erupting all around them before he even fell dead on the deck in a widening pool of blood.

Shots rang out in deafening blasts all around them as all sides began to fire, creating clouds of smoke that they used to their advantage, getting in close and gutting the royal navy sailors.

Yellow blocked a bayonet from impaling her with the barrel of her pistol, pushing it away long enough to whip the weapon around and bludgeon the man in the side of the head with the solid wood handle. 

Somewhere behind her Rose had buried her dagger into a sailor’s ribs as he grabbed for her sister, who was to busy shooting a man advancing with a saber in the chest to notice. A well-placed foot slammed into his midsection, knocking him over the railing, the splash going unnoticed among the shouts and blasts of gunfire on every side 

“Back to the ship!” Yellow ordered once they had whittled down some of the opposition.

“Go, pull up now!” Blue flagged her crew back toward The Menagerie. They had to get out of here before the galleons got to them and they were sitting ducks away from their cannons.

Most of the crew had already made it back to the ship when Rose turned to join them, only for a hand to dig into her curly locks and yank her backward.

She cried out, dropping her dagger as she was pulled back and whipped around to face a navy sailor.

“Where ya think you’re going ya damn sea whore?” He yanked at her hair, ripping a louder scream from her throat that caught Blue’s attention.

“Rose!” she yelled, running toward her. 

Blue wasn’t the only one who had noticed. 

A saber came slashing down and the sailor screamed as his arm was severed at the elbow and blood came gushing out, splattering Rose, but his scream was short-lived as Yellow pivoted her arm upwards, slicing his head clean off. It rolled across the deck as his body fell into a heap with the others.

Amber and cerulean locked for the briefest of moments before Yellow turned away to sever another limb.

Blue grabbed the thief’s arm and pulled her toward the ship.

“We have to go, now!” The Menagerie was already beginning to slowly move forward.

The two galleons were going to be upon them soon but Yellow had stayed to ensure all of her crew got off and lost her window by saving little Rose Doyle, now, with grim realization, there were enough navy sailors between her and The Cluster that she knew she’d never make it back.

“Shove off!” she yelled and Jasper who had been making her way back to the gangplanks stopped dead, but the look Yellow was sending her was clear and she quickly ran to the helm.

A handful of minutes later The Cluster was pulling away, the gangplanks falling away and dropping any navy sailors attempting to board the pirate ship into the sea. 

_They weren’t going to make it..._

That was the thought in Blue’s head as they ran toward her ship that was slowly pulling away. The crew standing at the railing calling for them. 

She knew what she had to do.

As they hit the edge she reached back and fisted both her hands into her sister’s blouse and flung the girl with all her might across the ever-widening chasm between the ships. 

She flew, and wouldn’t have made it were it not for the deckhands hanging from the railing that grabbed her arms as she sailed past them. They quickly dragged her aboard.

“Ciel!” Rose screamed as Blue stood on the edge of the merchant ship while The Menagerie pulled farther and farther away.

With one last look, she squared her shoulders and turned back to where Yellow was still fighting off the last of the navy sailors. The Cluster was moving away and it seemed the golden pirate had accepted that.

It looked like they would be going to Davey jones together. 

So be it.

She threw herself back into the fight until she was back to back with the tall blonde, who was panting, blood oozing from several cuts on her face.

They were surrounded at bayonet tip.

Yellow looked beyond them to see one of the galleons was about to board them and then they really would be finished. The other had decided to chase the much slower Cluster. She couldn’t help but smirk at that. 

Once they were back in open water The Cluster would decimate the other ship and they had managed to kill enough of the officers on this one that the other galleon would be to busy with them to offer aid.

“I’m open to any ideas…” Blue glanced at Yellow over her shoulder, holding her sword in one hand and her empty pistol in the other like a club. 

“Kill as many as possible before you go down…” Yellow’s gravely voice hit her ears and she couldn’t help but choke out a laugh.

“For once, I think we’re in agreement,” she mumbled lunging forward to stab one who got to close, kicking the fighting off again, but once the gangplank of the galleon lowered it was over.

With her sword shoved into the neck of one officer someone behind her grabbed Yellow’s arm and jerked her back, three more quickly piled on, shoving her to the ground and holding her limbs. Her sword jerked from her grip and her hat falling off somewhere. 

She heard Blue cry out somewhere behind her, followed by the sound of struggling. 

She snarled and struggled but then a boot came down and her world went dark in a shower of pain and stars.


	4. Chapter 4

She was swimming in a sea of darkness; deep and murky. 

Everything was a fuzzy haze and she couldn’t feel her body as it floated through the dark. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t to last.

She was slammed back into reality by the sudden roaring pain in her head and the general ache coursing through the rest of her body as she slowly came back to consciousness. 

She groaned, her eyelids felt like they were too heavy to open and the throbbing behind her eyes didn’t help any, in fact, she just squeezed them tighter, trying to will away the stabbing pain.

“Still alive? I was starting to think you’d taken your last.” A soft voice broke the quiet haze of pain around her, startling her for a moment, though she still didn’t open her eyes. She knew that voice.

Slowly she began to mover her fingers and toes. They heeded her command, so at least there was that 

“I wish I wasn’t…,” she finally rasps, eyes slowly starting to peel open. 

The first thing she saw was the damp, dingy, wood ceiling above her. The lantern flickering above her on a chain swung with a gentle rocking motion. They were below deck. 

“What happened?” Her voice comes out with a crack as she slowly moved her head, looking around. 

She’s in the brig, because of course.

“We were captured…” The obvious answer didn’t elicit the normal exasperated response from her for once. 

She turned toward the voice and as she expected, sees Blue sitting on the floor beside her in the dim light, back leaning against the iron bars of their cell, her knees pulled up to her chest and her right arm slung over them to cradle her chin as she gazed back at Yellow with half-lidded eyes. Her face was splattered with blood and she wasn’t sure if it was hers or someone else’s. 

With a groan, Yellow began to push herself up and immediately became aware of the cinching weight around her left wrist.

She looked down and scowled upon seeing the heavy iron shackle clamped around her left wrist, the chain trailing two feet across the floor to the matching shackle locked securely around Blue’s right wrist hanging at her side. 

“I wasn’t thrilled either,” she said, seeing the look on the Yellow’s face. 

Still scowling, Yellow pushed herself up, pressing her free right hand to her face in a vain hope of assuaging some of the pain in her skull as she leaned against the wall adjacent to Blue. The chain stretched out the two feet between them. 

Not nearly far enough away from her. 

After a long quiet moment, she sighed, dragging her hand through her hair and looking around the brig before her eyes inevitably fell back on Blue, still watching her silently. 

“We’re on board the galleon?” 

“Headed for Port Royal, for our first and last dance with Johnny Ketch,” Blue confirmed voice low. 

Yellow scowled at that.

Not that she expected anything less than the gallows. She always knew that this was where she was going to end up eventually, hanging at the end of a rope, though she certainly thought she’d had more time.

The longer they sat there in silence the angrier she got. Some of it at herself.

She had been sailing long enough that when that nagging in her gut started she should have listened to it! It was her basic instincts telling her better.

Some of her anger though was aimed outward….

“This is your fault…,” she finally growled, making Blue jerk to look at her. 

‘My fault?” Her eyes were wide and disbelieving. “How is this my fault?” She sat up straight, frowning. 

“You forced my hand!” Yellow growled. “I knew something was wrong the second I saw that ship, but you didn’t give me any choice!” she accused, leaning forward. 

“How did I make you do anything?!” Blue squawked indignantly.

Yellow flung herself onto her knees to tower over Blue, eyes blown wide and filled with unfettered rage.

“You and damnable games are what got us into this mess!”

“My games!?” Blue erupted shrilly with disbelief.

“Yes! Your fuckin mind games outside the tavern!” 

“I…,” Blue started.

“You and your... damn mouth!” The blonde was a bright red from her neck to her hairline, but this time with rage as she flung out both her arms, jerking Blue forward by the chain. 

“I didn’t make you kiss me back!” Blue shot up to her knees, jerking her arm back and pulling Yellow forward so they were nose to nose. “You’re full of shite, you still would have fallen for this and just been captured on your own!” Blue eyes flashed with cold fire, lips pulled back over her teeth in a snarl. 

“They only set up this trap because they knew they could catch us both at the same time, because gods know, for some reason wherever I go you usually follow!” Yellow spat. 

Blue opened her mouth to retort, jaw working but no sound came out. Her face was a bright red when her mouth finally snapped shut and she sat back against the wall petulantly turned away from that harsh amber gaze. 

Yellow fell back against the wall, mouth still set in a deep frown as she looked anywhere but at Blue. 

They sat there in stony silence for several hours, adamantly refusing to acknowledge the other. 

Eventually, the throbbing pain in Yellow’s head had dulled into something far more bearable and she sighed. The last of her rage had fizzled out a while ago, now she was just tired. 

Perhaps sensing the settling change in the atmosphere, Blue glanced over at her, mouth pursed. She’d wanted to ask Yellow something before she had started yelling her head off. Now the blonde seemed to be calmer and the sizzling anger in herself had dwindled out. 

“Yellow…,” she tried.

A grunt was her answer but it was more answer then she could sometimes expect from the other woman. 

“Why did you help my sister?” she asked after a long moment of chewing on the words, unsure if she should voice them at all. She turned ever so slightly as to look at the blonde’s profile in the low light.

Yellow just grunted again in response and Blue sighed, scowling.

“I don’t understand you” She admitted, starting to turn away but her eyes were drawn back to Yellow when that statement elicited an amused snort from the blonde.

“You’re right, you don’t.” came the throaty reply that only made Blue frown. 

In truth, when it came to Blue, Yellow didn’t even understand why she did half the things she sometimes did in the cerulean-eyed pirate’s presence. 

That was something she didn’t want to examine. Something that had been digging at her; for some time actually.

Yellow had killed men for far less offenses than the kind Blue often liked to levy against her, such as her… jaunty little tune in the tavern. 

Yet...

She had never been able to bring herself to truly try to get rid of the other woman. Not that they hadn’t had their fair share of tavern brawls and scuffles. No one had ever drawn their sword or fired a pistol shot, though they had certainly shot at each other with cannons.

For all the growling and grumbling she did about Blue, she had never really taken any steps to do something about it.

Maybe some of it was that Blue kept things interesting.

When she had first started sailing it had been a constant dog fight to get anywhere, but as the years passed and she had established herself as one of the tops dogs out there, things had settled into a sort of predictableness.

Then Blue had appeared and things had never been the same since.

Most ships avoided The Cluster at all costs. 

Blue, brazen as she was, would pull right up alongside, just to make dirty jokes at Yellow’s expense, sailing off before the cluster could turn and unload its cannons on her. 

If nothing else it certainly broke up the monotony of the days.

Whenever the barrelman shouted that he saw The Menagerie coming Yellow never knew what was going to happen. 

She certainly hadn’t been expecting the time the sloop had sailed by, firing globs of mud and straw out of its cannons at them. 

They’d lost a day cleaning the ship but the crew had been amused by it nonetheless, inspiring them to come up with ideas to get back at the other ship.

Things had been a little dry before Blue had sailed into her part of the world. 

Yellow glanced at Blue out of the corner of her eye, contemplating for a long moment before finally answering, casually running a hand through her hair as she did. 

“Your sister never did anything to me…,” was the answer, causing Blue to turn and look at her, eyes widening in surprise at the sudden answer. The surprise was short-lived and she chuckled.

“Neither do half the things you put musket balls through…,” Blue snorted.

“Yet I’ve never put one through you either,” Yellow grumbled, brows dipping low over her eyes as she regarded Blue with sharp amber eyes that flickered in the low light from the lantern above them. 

“Curiously true…,” the blue-eyed pirate smiled at her and Yellow grunted. They sat together silently for a long moment before Yellow spoke up again, looking down the hall at the royal navy guard standing by the stairs.

“We need to escape.” She said quietly, looking around at the metal walls. 

“That would be the best course of action, but how do we do that, especially with this?” She held up her shackled wrist, rattling the chain and Yellow’s wrist along with it.

“We need to get on deck.” 

“Then what? Steal a rowboat?” Blue rolled her eyes but Yellow said nothing. “You can’t be serious…,” she hissed.

“I’d love to hear your suggestion,” Yellow snapped. “We either row to somewhere else or we hang when we get to Port Royal.” 

Blue sighed, toying with the blue gemstone hanging around her neck as she looked at the cell around them. 

“If we can get the rowboat my crew will be waiting in Genada,” she said. Yellow looked at her questioningly. “That was our contingency plan, if something happened to me, to wait in the Grenada port for two weeks, and if I don’t show in that time they’ll move on,” she explained.

Yellow didn’t say as much but she was impressed by Blue’s foresight. 

“We just need to figure out how to get on deck and out of this.” She held up her left wrist. 

Blue looked at the guard by the door. He was young, probably only just barely old enough to have joined.

“I have an idea.” she finally said.

Yellow looked at her questioningly but Blue just shook her head, making Yellow frown. 

“You need to trust me, Yellow,” Blue said quietly.

Yellow couldn’t help but bark a laugh at that. 

“That’s asking a lot… an impossible amount actually,” she gruffed. Blue was silent for several long moments before she nodded.

“I know…,” she agreed with a frown. “But for now, you and I are pair.” She held up her shackled wrist. “And I want to save my neck as much as I’m sure you want to save yours, if nothing else, trust in that. For now, we have to work together.”

They held each other’s gaze for a long moment before Yellow sighed heavily through her nose.

“Fine,” she agreed and Blue smiled, face lighting up.

“So…?” she asked, cocking a brow.

“We wait.” Was Blue’s answer as she settled back against the wall. 

They mostly sat in silence, what they were waiting for Yellow had no idea but she had agreed to trust Blue, so she would, for now.

Yellow twirled her signet ring around her finger anxiously, smoothing her fingers over her initials engraved into the old, tarnished metal.

Blue stayed quiet, presumably deep in thought, and she was, some of the time.

The rest she spent glancing at the blondes profile. There were still shadows of bruises on her face from their row the other night and splattered blood from the fight on the ship.

This was probably the longest she had ever seen the other captain without her hat.

Her short, blonde hair was mussed and Blue could see a scar that started at her hairline and dragged down thorough her eyebrow to just above her left eye. It was during this intense inspection that she noticed the dusting of markings across the blonde’s nose and cheeks.

“You have freckles…” She hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but she evidently had if the way Yellow whipped around to look at her was any indication.

“What of it?” she grumbled and Blue couldn’t help but smirk.

“Nothing…,” Blue quickly sing-songed. 

The sun slowly sank below the horizon, they could tell by the amount of light shining down into the hold in the stairwell. 

Once it was dark, predictably, the young officer started drinking. 

Blue watched him carefully. Halfway through the bottle, he swayed ever so slightly with the gentle rocking of the ship.

“Now…” She turned to Yellow who just cocked a brow as she stood, pulling Yellow along as she moved to the cell door. She leaned against the metal, motioning for Yellow to sit next to it, their two feet of chain not allowing for much else. “Feign sleep…” she mumbled.

With one last look, Yellow leaned her back against the wall next to the door and crossed one arm over her chest, slumped forward. The other hanging loose at her side to allow Blue free range with both her hands. 

“Oh good officer, sir,” Blue called and Yellow immediately recognized that flirty, honeyed tone as one she’d used on her many a time. 

The man turned to look at her, staggering forward before straightening himself back up.

“Whatdya want, wench?” he slurred. 

“I was hoping a dashing naval officer like yourself could help a woman fulfill her last wish before she’s off to dance with Johnny Ketch.” She smiled in that way she knew always disarmed men.

He looked at her for a minute before stumbling closer to the cell but still out of reach.

“And what, pray tell, could a mangy pirate whore want?” He spat on the floor.

“Nothing of importance, I assure you. Just a final kiss.” she purred and it took all of Yellow’s willpower not to jerk her head up at that. Instead, she stayed still, though she may not have even been breathing she was listening so hard. 

The officer looked down at Yellow, sitting still on the floor before grinning.

“Aye, I can do that.” He grinned lecherously, moving in close. Blue could feel his breath on her face as he leaned in, reeking of rum and eyes sliding closed.

In a flash she had whipped a blade out of the front of her shirt, her other hand reaching through the metal bars to grab the front of the officer’s shirt, jerking him in close and burying the blade in the side of his throat.

He choked and spluttered on his own blood, eyes popping open to stare at Blue as she twisted the blade and with a jerk finished slitting his throat, blood splattered across the front of her shirt and the floor. She held tight as his body went limp.

“Help me lower him quietly to the floor.” 

They silently slid his body to the floor and took the keys from his belt.

“Shite, none of them fit our cuffs.” Blue scowled as she frantically twisted the metal in the locks with no results.

“But it will fit the door. We need to get off this ship, we can deal with the cuffs later,” Yellow hissed quietly. 

“Aye…,” Blue agreed as they unlocked the cell. Blue leading them quietly down the hall to the stairs. 

She peaked her head up out of the hold. The ship was dark, only a few lanterns illuminating the pitch blackness of night. 

There was one man standing at the bow, but the way he was slumped against the railing told Blue he was asleep on watch.

Only about twenty feet away, several rowboats were hanging. They moved quietly across the deck, Yellow trying her damndest not to thump. Blue never made a sound. 

They climbed into the boat and immediately Blue noticed their next problem.

“How are we going to lower ourselves down with only one hand?” she hissed.

The minute they undid the ties the rowboat would begin to drop and if they made to much noise they would alert the whole ship to their escape. With ties on each side, they could reach the ropes, but even with the two feet of chain stretched taut between them, only their unchained arms could reach, and it certainly took two hands to lower the rope without letting it drop into a freefall. 

“Not in a fun way,” Yellow whispered. “We need to hold it and release it a little at a time.” She wound the end of the rope tightly around her right hand and looked at Blue, who frowned but followed suit with her left.

“Just a little at a time…,” she said quietly as she undid her tie and the rope immediately snapped tight around her hand, she held her arm tight, keeping it still. The boat jerked as Blue undid her side and winced at the pressure on her arm as she held up her side. 

“Now, just a little,” Yellow mumbled, letting an inch at a time uncoil from her fingers, keeping her fist clenched enough to hold it, least it all slip through her fingers at once and completely drop her side and cut off her fingers. 

Blue was straining under the weight. Even with both hands, this wouldn’t have been easy for her. She was too busy concentrating on the task at hand, but would later marvel at how strong the blonde was.

It took an agonizing twenty minutes to slowly lower themselves to the sea below and Blue’s arm was screaming at her and her left hand was a bright red as they finally sat in the boat, exhausted.

“We don’t have time…” Yellow mumbled as they sat side by side, each taking a paddle and with a look at the stars, decided their heading and began rowing away from the galleon, watching it grow smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the darkness altogether.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Johnny Ketch - hanging


	5. chapter 5

The ocean stretched around them in every direction. The only break up in the monotony being the occasional splash of a fish or calling of a seagull flying overhead. 

It was late afternoon and the heat was at its apex.

Rhythmically, one turn after the other they rowed beneath the ceaseless rays of the sun.

The heat beat down on them as they sat across from each other, rowing through the seemingly endless expanse of water without any idea if they were actually getting anywhere. 

They were hot and exhausted.

Yellow had already taken off her coat, or at least as much as she could with her left hand shackled to Blue’s right. She’d flipped it off her right arm and back to hang off the chain between them, leaving her in the bloodstained white shirt that was quickly becoming transparent as it stuck to her sweat-covered skin.

Blue's already usually precariously open shirt was hanging open even wider off her shoulders, just barely covering what it needed to. Yellow adamantly refused to look at her, keeping her eyes on the horizon or off to the side.

They hadn’t talked in a while, there was little to talk about at the moment out in the middle of the ocean other then they're impending death by dehydration if they didn’t land somewhere soon.

The only downside about having made this escape was their distinct lack of food and water.

It felt like she had a mouth full of sand. She’d already been dehydrated after all the drinking she’d done the night, before the fight had broken out anyway. They needed to find freshwater or they were never going to make it to Grenada.

Her right arm ached, between how long it had taken to lower themselves down to the water last night and the constant rowing all day, her shoulder was screaming at her to stop.

The heat also made her grumpy… grumpier than usual, especially in conjunction with the pain of her arm and the dull headache she still had.

The constant strain of the chain between them as they moved was chafing to Yellow, who started too periodically yank on it. 

Blue was exhausted. 

She'd hardly slept at all the other night and they had been rowing since they got off the galleon. 

Her arms were begging for her to stop but somehow, they kept moving just the same, at the top of every turn she thought for sure she wouldn’t be able to continue on but then she would pull up and push back down. 

Occasionally to entertain herself or break up the monotony of the ocean she'd watch Yellow, sitting across from her. 

Her shirt stuck to her damp skin and Blue couldn't help but watch the muscles moving beneath in her arms. 

Something about it was just fascinating to her. 

But of course between the heat and her exhaustion, she didn't have her usual patience for some of Yellow's... mannerisms. 

She ignored the first tug at the chain. It was inevitable they were going to yank on it occasionally. Then however it happened a second third and fourth time.

Blue frowned a little more every time the cuff on her wrist jerked, pinching the skin beneath with the movement. Irritation was beginning to burn inside her right along with the burning on her skin from the sun.

She took a deep breath trying to soothe the crackling anger trying to flare up.

She felt the tug again and her head snapped up.

"Stop it!" she snarled with a glare, startling Yellow, but it was short-lived as she glared right back. 

“There’s no slack, it’s pulling on my arm," she growled

"Well, you're pulling on my arm!" Blue yanked on it, jerking Yellow forward, who snarled, yanking harder right back, nearly pulling Blue off the bench. 

With a frustrated growling noise Blue jumped up, oar in hand.

"Ya fuckin' prick!" she shrieked, making Yellow jump up just in time for Blue to grab the oar with both hands and swing it with all her might, smacking the blonde with it.

Yellow held up her arms to block it, jerking Blue into her chest in the process. 

The boat rocked dangerously as they collided and scowling, Blue gave her a final shove, flinging her over the side.

She watched with satisfaction as Yellow fell over the side of the boat but only for about a half-second before the chain went taut and pulled her in right after her with a screech.

They both surfaced coughing and sputtering, pulling on the chain and the now heavy, drenched coat hanging from it like a weight as they hauled themselves back into the boat in a heap and sat across from each, soaked and panting on the boat’s bottom, legs tangled. 

The saltwater stung their cuts but the cold water did wonders for their rising tempers.

Yellow slicked her hair back, flicking the salty water out of her eyes and leaned her head back on the bench tiredly, it thumped on the wood. 

“We’re never going to make it…,” the blonde sighed tiredly. “We’re going to kill each other or die of dehydration before we make it to land.” 

Blue pulled off her bandana and wrung the water from her long hair, looking at the blonde through narrowed eyes. 

“If you could be less of an ass…” she grumbled under her breath, turning to look out at the ocean. 

They sat there drifting for several minutes before Yellow sighed tiredly.

“I know,” she finally said.

Blue blinked, turning back to look at Yellow, still laying back, face upturned to the sky. 

“I’m sorry… I think I misheard you, what was that?” The tone of her voice made Yellow scowl even without even having to see her face. 

Fortifying herself internally and painfully choking down some of her pride she flung herself up to sit, amber locking with cerulean. 

“I said, I know. I know I’m… difficult,” she said.

"An ass…" Blue corrected.

Yellow sighed.

"Yes...an ass…" she ground out, glaring at Blue. 

“Well, color me surprised!” Blue admitted, pressing a hand to her chest. Yellow couldn’t tell if she was being mocked or not, but knowing Blue she probably was.

She pushed down the prideful anger that instinctually tried to rear its head at the teasing tone in Blue's voice. Her pride was what had gotten her into this situation. 

If she had listened to her instincts rather than letting her ego push aside her better judgment she wouldn’t have been in this mess of a situation.

But she was, and despite appearances, she was well aware that being angry about it was wasn't going to help her. 

Not that knowing that made it any easier to control her temper. Blue had that effect on her, more than most things anyway.

She was just as much at fault here as Blue was and whether she liked it or not, they were chained together and if they didn't work together they were never going to make it. 

She didn't have to like it, but she was going to have to try. 

The best first step in this would be to admit that yes, she was being… an ass.

She took a deep breath, eyes closed before opening them to look at Blue.

“I know I have been…” she started only for Blue to cut her off. 

“An ass…,” she supplied helpfully and Yellow exhaled sharply.

“...and were never going to get anywhere except the bottom of the damn ocean If we don’t both try… a little harder to not murder each other…” She didn’t let the interruption stop her. 

“I haven’t done anything.” Blue turned up her nose, to which Yellow could only glare as water dripped off the end of her nose and down her forehead. 

Blue pursed her lips, the oar laying on the floor between them.

“Alright, fine,” she admitted. “Maybe I haven’t been perfect…”

“It doesn’t matter…,” Yellow cut her off. “We need to come to an understanding here, Blue, or we might as well have gone to the gallows.” 

“What do you suggest?” she asked, leaning back against the bench, suddenly looking very tired.

“First of all, no more of this!” She gestured to themselves, soaked and dripping wet.

“Agreed…,” Blue sighed. “We need to work together until we can do something about this.” She gave the chain a shake and winced as the metal scraped at her skin. Yellow grunted in agreement. 

“We need to keep going. We’re going to need water soon…,” the blonde grumbled.

Blue pulled herself up and held her chained hand out to the other woman still sitting sprawled in the bottom of the boat.

Yellow looked at the outstretched hand for a long moment before finally grabbing it with her own, the chain jingled as it clinked against itself as Blue helped pull her to stand.

They sat back down across from each other and started to row again, but it didn’t take Yellow long to notice that Blue kept glancing at her.

“What?” she grumbled.

“That’s a good look for you.” she teased with a wink and Yellow blinked, looking down at the once white, now seethrough shirt clinging to her like a second skin. 

She practically ripped the coat back on, face burning while Blue cackled uncontrollably. 

~ ~ ~ 

It was several hours later when Blue saw the dark spec on the horizon over Yellow’s shoulder. 

She squinted at the spot.

“What?” Yellow cocked a brow at the strange face the other woman was making. 

“Is that land?” Blue pointed in the direction of Yellow’s shoulder. 

The blonde turned, squinting into the distance before digging through the pocket of her coat and pulling out the spyglass she had shoved in there the day before. 

She pulled it open and peered through the glass.

“Well?” Blue leaned forward.

“It’s land,” she confirmed.

“Let me see!”

Yellow rolled her eyes but passed it to Blue, who peered through the glass.

“I recognize that coast,” she said, still starring through the brass barrel.

“How can you possibly recognize the coast?” Yellow frowned. 

“It’s Porlamar, I recognize the port.” she corrected. “It’s one of my sister’s favorite places.” She lowered the glass from her eye and looked at Yellow, who seemed to be deep in thought. 

“Then we’re fairly close to Grenada. If I remember correctly, it’s right of the coast, we can travel east on the mainland and steal a ship to sail north to Grenada.” She mumbled, seemingly talking to herself rather than Blue. 

“It would have to be a pretty small ship for us to be able to man it like this…” Blue held up her wrist and the chain jingled as if Yellow had forgotten about it.

“Yes, but anything is better than this.” She gestured to their current vessel and Blue couldn’t help but agree. Her shoulder was on fire from the countless hours of rowing. 

If she ever got back to it she would never take her beautiful sloop for granted again.

“We have to get their first…,” Yellow grumbled and Blue sighed as they started to row again, tired but with a renewed energy. 

When they finally pulled ashore Blue wanted to cry with relief, and really the only thing stopping her was the fact that Yellow was there. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been so elated at the sight of a shitty, rundown, seaside port town. She couldn’t fathom why her sister liked to stop her as often as she did. Blue usually let her go ashore herself.

They hauled the rowboat onto the sand and just as quickly left it, walking up beach toward the town, but Blue pulled them to a stop, jerking Yellow back by the arm. 

Her eyes turned to glare, mouth starting to open before she seemed to hold back whatever was about to come spilling out. She took a breath. 

“What?” The tone was still one of annoyance but not the yelling Blue was sure it had replaced. 

“We can’t just go walking through town like this.” She held up the chain and Yellow frowned at it. “It’s not like you won’t attract enough attention as it is…” Blue continued and now the blonde looked affronted.

“What does that mean?” she grunted, her right hand planted on her hip.

“You’re…” Blue made a vague gesture at the blonde’s entire body, making Yellow scowl. “If you could stop being so tall and blonde that would be fantastic. You stick out like a nun in a whore house.” She couldn’t help but smirk as Yellow’s scowl only deepened. 

“I’ll see what I can do…,” she deadpanned, making Blue’s grin grow into obnoxious proportions. 

“Good, you work on that, I do however have a plan for this.” She lifted her wrist and Yellow cocked a brow at that. She didn’t like the look in those ocean blue eyes.

~ ~ ~

“I hate this…,” Yellow mumbled under her breath as they walked through the streets of the town, the extra chain wrapped around their arms beneath their sleeves as they held hands to conceal it and the cuffs. 

“You don’t like holding my hand?” Blue fluttered her eyes up at her, tone sorrowful, but the smirk on her lips belied her. Yellow grunted in response and Blue ignored the grumpy blonde as they walked through the market, the crowds had thinned as the sun was setting, casting long shadows between the ramshackle buildings as it dipped down over the horizon, painting the sky a brilliant array of golds and pinks 

“I’d kill a man for something to eat or drink… not to mention someplace to sleep…” She slumped as they walked. She was only just barely standing. 

Yellow hummed as they stopped at a cart selling fresh fruit. Blue looked at it and felt her stomach grumble angrily. 

If this were any other situation she would have just taken it, but with no real weapons and chained to Yellow it was a guaranteed one-way ticket to being arrested again, and she hadn’t even technically finished being locked up yet. Yellows larger, calloused hand wrapped around hers was a reminder of that. 

At least her hand was warm. 

“If you’re not going to buy anything get out of here!” The old, bearded man behind the cart finally turned to them and made a shooing motion. Blue frowned and Yellow glared as they moved on toward the inn.

Once they had moved out of sight Yellow reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a mango, holding it out to Blue, who looked at the fruit with wide eyes.

“How did you…!” 

“Do you want it or not?” Yellow asked. Blue snatched it from her hand and took a bite and hummed in delight at the sweet juice that filled her mouth and slid down her dry throat.

Yellow watched her with a cocked brow before pulling a second fruit from her pocket and taking a bite as they walked through town. 

It wasn’t much, but it was something. They still needed water, but that would be easy enough, she could see the well from her and pulled Blue along in that direction as she devoured the fruit she’d given her. 

Once all that remained was the pit, Blue threw it aside, wiping her mouth off on the back of her hand and looking at Yellow; eating her own much slower.

“He was standing there the entire time… how did you do that?” Blue looked at her with narrowed eyes.

Amber eyes slid to regard her silently as she chewed on the bite in her mouth before turning back to look ahead of her. After a minute Blue was sure she wasn’t going to get an answer so when Yellow spoke it surprised her.

“Pickpocketing was how I survived as a kid,” she finally said before taking another bite, holding the fruit in her teeth as she dug in her pocket and pulled out a knife.

Blue’s knife.

Cerulean eyes widened as she dug into her belt and found nothing. 

“How did you get that!?” She snatched the knife back with a scowl, and tucking it into her belt. Yellow just pulled the fruit out of her mouth and smirked. 

A look that twisted something in Blue’s gut. 

Either way, that was not what Blue had been expecting her to say, and for several moments she didn’t know what to say in response to it. 

“Poor family?” she finally asked and those golden eyes were on her again. 

“I don’t have any family.” Was the simple response, the smirk falling away. “I grew up on the streets.” 

“But before that…,” she trailed off. If Yellow wanted to be talkative, or at least as talkative as she ever was Blue was going to get as much out of her as she could. She was curious now. She’d never seen the blonde move, much less twice to swipe the fruit from the cart and never once had she felt her hand slip the knife out of her belt.

“My earliest memories are of an orphanage on the coast of Martinique…,” was the response she got after another moment of thoughtful chewing.

It was pretty commonplace for people to turn to piracy when they had no other courses available to them. Among every group of poor and hungry, you could find those willing to set sail, preferring a life of ill-gotten food in their bellies then none at all. 

For some reason though Blue had never pictured Yellow to be one of them. The blonde carried herself with the kind of pride and self-assuredness Blue had been positive came from a more privileged life. Some people who grew tired of that life left it for one on the seas, though that wasn’t nearly as common… and they usually died fairly quickly. 

Then there were people like herself… 

Blue frowned, shoving those thoughts down. She was too tired to go for a stroll down memory lane right now. 

Given the hunched way Yellow was now walking told Blue that this subject was all but closed, but tried anyway. 

“Don’t tell me you picked the name ‘Marigold Faust’ for yourself,” she laughed and Yellow scowled but nothing more, and Blue knew that she wasn’t going to get anything else out of the blonde as they stopped at the well and drank their fill of water.

Now that her belly was full, the utter exhaustion of the last day and a half was hitting Blue full force. 

“I see the inn down the way.” Blue nodded at the large, decrepit building. 

“And what exactly are we going to pay with?” Yellow grumbled. Blue just smiled, flipping some hair over her shoulder and sticking out her chest.

“I have an idea…” She smirked. Yellow rolled her eyes but bit her tongue. They weren’t in a position for her to speak against anything that worked. 

The inn was filled with people drinking and laughing loudly.

They kept their heads down as they walked in. The two of them weren’t that recognizable to the average person usually, but their faces were painted on wanted posters from here to Caracas and all across the Caribbean. It was possible anywhere for them to be recognized.

Without her hat to cover her sun-bleached blonde hair or any way to diminish her over six-foot frame, Yellow was a bit of an eye-catcher, Blue wasn’t wrong about that. Not that She was much better with her long silver hair, though she garnered lots of attention for other reasons.

Male attention usually. 

Normally that might play to their favor, in fact Blue had been counting on it, and it may have if the person manning the counter wasn’t an older woman. 

She heard Blue curse under her breath when she realized this as well.

“I don’t think what you had planned is going to work,” Yellow whispered into her ear, the amusement in her tone clear. 

“Shut up…,” the other captain grumbled as they walked up to the counter. 

“How much for a room?” Blue asked, leaning against the counter, her chest pushed out, straining against her corset. It took everything Yellow had not to roll her eyes. 

The dowager behind the bar also didn’t look impressed by it.

“Three pieces of eight,” she said, going back to wiping down the bar, ignoring Blue.

“Is there nothing else we could…”

“Three pieces of eight.” 

Yellow snorted as Blue sighed, leaning back up.

“Would you take this instead?” She slipped one of the silver rings off her fingers and held it up to the woman who took the ring, inspecting it before nodding and dropping it into the pocket of her apron.

“Follow me.” She led them up the stairs to a hallway full of doors and unlocked one. “Be out by midday on the morrow…,” was all she said before going back downstairs. Blue just stuck her tongue out at the woman’s back and Yellow did roll her eyes before pulling her inside the room and shutting the door behind them.

“I told you that wasn’t going to work…” 

“It works more often than it doesn’t,” Blue defended.

“It’s never worked on me…,” the blonde grunted. 

“Curiously… despite the fact that I know for certain that you have no interest in men whatsoever... no one who kisses like that could…,” she mumbled the last bit but smirked as Yellow turned to glare at her, her face turning red, but in the darkness of the room, Blue couldn’t see it.

“What I do or do not have interest in is none of your concern,” Yellow snapped, dropping Blue’s hand and unwrapping the chain from her arm to sit on the bed. 

“You're no fun…,” she whined but smiled. 

“Just go to sleep…,” Yellow grumbled, sitting on the bed and kicking off her boots. 

“Gladly…,” she sighed, crawling into the empty space next to Yellow. 

She could have laid down in the dirt and it's still would have been fantastic.

They faced away from each other, shackled arms resting awkwardly on their ribs, Yellow on her right side and Blue on her left, despite the position not being the most comfortable it didn’t take long before both of them were out cold.


	6. Chapter 6

Sunlight was shining in through the open window and right onto Yellow’s face, and she groaned lowly in her throat as her body slowly tried to move into some form of consciousness against her will. She turned her head to bury it in the blankets.

She felt like she was made of iron. Even her eyelids felt too heavy to lift. She might have ignored the harsh light and let exhaustion sink her back into unconsciousness had it not been for the low sound at her back coming to the forefront of her attention all of a sudden 

A low grunting noise at slow intervals.

She still hadn’t opened her eyes but her brows furrowed, listening carefully to the new sound when she realized what it was.

Snoring.

Blue was laying behind her snoring, her back shoved flush against Yellow’s, and as her body came back to life she realized her arm was pinned back between their bodies at an uncomfortable angle. As she tried to move it she came to a conclusion.

She was ready to cut off her arm now.

She managed to wiggle the limb out with a grunt of effort, the whole thing felt like a dead weight attached to her shoulder, totally unfeeling and the chain didn’t help that at all. She moved her face out of the foul-smelling blankets and groaned, squeezing her eyes shut tight against the bright light. Her right arm was dead from the hours of constant rowing and her left was just as dead from hours of being in the awkward position at her back all night.

She was off to a great start this morning. 

She started to push herself up only for both arms to collapse like wet seaweed, sending her face down back to the bed. She growled to herself and the snoring beside her faltered. 

“Hugh… wha-?” Blue grumbled, voice thick with sleep. “What’s goin’ on?” She blinked, trying to cast away the lingering drowsiness, as she rolled over onto her back, wincing as she did. “Ugh, my arms…,” she hissed.

“Tell me about it…,” Yellow grumbled as she tried again to push herself up, this time with more success, the utter deadness in her limbs starting to fade away only for pain to replace the numbness.

“Ok, just chop it off…,” she heard Blue mumble to herself as she sat up in bed and rubbed her left shoulder tenderly. It would fade, but for now, the pain was electric every time she moved her arm. 

That was not going to work another night, that was for certain. 

The cuff was starting to chafe around her wrist too, she could see the red and raw turning skin where it would scrape when she moved and she frowned. 

They needed to get this off.

Something to work on today.

“What time is it?” Blue grumbled, squinting up at her with one cerulean eye cracked open against the bright glare of the sun shining into her room.

“Time for us to get moving.” Yellow yawned, running a hand through her hair lazily once she could somewhat feel it again and it still took an enormous effort. “We need to get to the mainland.”

“We have to get back in the rowboat…,” Blue’s pitched whine filled her ears and Yellow frowned

“We’re not getting back in the rowboat,” she grumbled starting to climb over Blue when her tired arms gave out again and she flopped back down right on top of the other captain who squealed in surprise as Yellow’s body weight flopped on top of her, bringing them nose to nose.

They stared back at each other for no more than a few seconds before Blue wheezed.

“You’re heavy...”

Yellow scrambled to push herself off, mumbling an apology under her breath as she did. 

The awkward atmosphere hung in the air as Blue got her breath back, looking at the back of Yellow’s ruffled bed head and couldn’ help but think that it wasn’t the worst look on the blonde. The chain prevented her from going anywhere as long as Blue was still laying in bed, so she sat on the side, not looking at Blue. 

“If not the rowboat, how are we going to get to the mainland?” she asked, sitting up and running a hand through her long bedraggled hair.

“It’s only twenty miles off the coast, ships run back and forth between the two all day, it shouldn’t be hard to get on a ship,” Yellow grunted, pushing herself to stand as Blue scooted herself to the side. 

“We need to get out of here, the longer we stay in town the greater chances someone is going to recognize us.” 

“You do have that kind of face…,” Blue mumbled, pushing herself out of the bed and stretching, arms pulling up over her head languidly.

Yellow held her arm up to allow for the movement even as she frowned at the statement, but she was too hungry and tired to for once to rise to whatever bait Blue was tossing out.

“Let’s just get something to eat and head for the shore.” 

They wrapped the excess chain around their arms and Yellow, reluctantly, twined her fingers between Blue’s. If they didn’t, standing only hardly an inch apart would look more than a little suspicious.

“Let’s go…” She pulled them along out of the room and down the stairs. 

There were a handful of people milling around in the tavern below but they ignored them, moving quickly outside. The bright and sunny day seemed to have brought the entire town out as crowds of people moved every which way up and down the street. 

This was actually better for them, they could more easily blend into a large crowd than they could a sparse one.

That, and it would be even easier for Yellow to acquire a few things they might need in a crowd, not that she had any problem when they weren't in one.

They moved around town silently, Blue following Yellow as she pulled them along seemingly aimlessly up and down the streets and back alleys of town. 

“Okay, where are we going?” Blue finally asked after an hour of this meandering. Yellow glances at her out of the corner of her eye.

“Getting provisions…,” Yellow says as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world. 

“We haven’t done anything…” Blue frowned. To this Yellow only pulled a handful of gold and silver pieces out of her pocket, looking at Blue knowingly before dropping them back into her coat.

“Seriously, how do you do that?” she leaned in and whispered with a certain kind of awe that Yellow couldn’t help but grin at before digging into her pocket again and pulling out a small silver ring.

The one Blue had paid with the night before. 

“Okay, I’m starting to think you’re actually quite useful to have around…,” she admitted, accepting the ring and sliding it back on her finger as she looked up at Yellow from beneath her lashes. 

“So glad to be of use…” Yellow rolled her eyes and Blue grinned at her. “We need to buy some provisions,” she mumbled, looking away from that smile and pulling Blue along behind her back toward the market where they got breakfast and paid for a sack of dried meats, hardtack, and several bottles of rum, that Yellow slung over her left shoulder, Blue seemed to be the happiest about the rum. 

“That porridge was vile…,” Yellow grumbled as they walked down the cobblestone path that led down to the docks.

“It was okay.” Blue shrugged. Yellow looked at her incredulously and Blue chuckled. “You’ve never had my sister’s cooking,” she explained. 

“Nor do I think I ever want to,” she mumbled and Blue only laughed till something caught her attention. 

“Well, I recognize that sour mug.” She grinned, pointing to a wall at the entrance to an alley.

A wanted poster was stuck to the stone and sure enough, a remarkable likeness of Yellow stared back at them from beneath the large blocky letters that read ‘Reward: Marigold Faust Wanted Dead or Alive for acts of Piracy”

They walked over to better inspect the poster, Yellow glared at it.

“Oh, three hundred gold pieces, aren’t you special.” Blue teased, that grin never leaving her face as she elbowed Yellow, who scowled. “Don’t look so sour, it’s a remarkable likeness,” Blue laughed, pointing to the poster “They even got your scar…” 

“These weren’t here yesterday!” Yellow finally snapped and Blue blinked, looking up at her before looking back to the poster.

“It’s only been a handful of hours, we probably just missed them last night.” Blue shrugged but started to glance around.

Yellow looked around and saw several others, not just hers, but one’s for Blue as well.

“No… we wouldn’t have missed all of these…” 

She turned to look and saw the other posters pasted to the walls. 

“Let’s just get to the docks and find a ship…,” Blue mumbled, pulling the poster down and golding it up into a small square. 

She had only taken a couple of steps when she was jerked backward by the arm, flung into Yellow’s chest. Arms wrapped around her and dragged her back into the alley, pulling them both into the shadows, back against the wall of one of the buildings.

She quickly shook off the shock and glared up at Yellow.

“What are you…?” 

“Quiet, don’t move,” she hissed, arms tightening around Blue, who immediately picked up on the alarm in her voice and the rigidness in her frame.

She stilled, and sure enough as soon as she did, out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of the dark blue and gold uniforms of the two royal navy sailors walking down the cobblestone road past the alley with muskets leaning against their shoulders. Blue clutched the fabric of Yellow’s black and gold coat between her fingers, not even daring to breathe until the two had passed out of her line of view and by the stillness of the chest she was leaning against, Yellow also was holding her breath, fingers digging into Blue’s hips. 

She mentally cursed as she saw one of the two turn his head to look into the alley and take a half step toward them.

With the damn posters, Yellow was as good as caught if they saw her, and by extension herself. 

Thinking fast, she reached up and grabbed the blonde’s face and yanked her down, covering her mouth, and thus her face, with her own. Amber eyes blew wide as Blue kissed her, and her left hand threaded through her hair, using the wide sleeve of her shirt to cover as much of the bright locks as she could. 

Twisting her head elicited a low moan from Yellow and she heard the approaching sailor grumble something before his footsteps faded away from them. She waited another moment before releasing her lip lock on the taller pirate with an audibly wet pop. 

“They’re gone…” she panted, seeing the road empty. 

She turned back to Yellow who was looking at her with wide eyes before the shock faded and she was pursing her lips into a familiar scowl.

“How many times do you intend to kiss me?” she snapped, making Blue jerk back before she frowned, leaning forward to poke a finger in Yellow’s chest.

“Let’s be clear, I wasn’t the only one doing the kissing at the tavern, and that just now was to save our damn asses!” She emphasized each word with a poke of her finger. “With those posters out there, if they had seen you, both of us would be heading for a long fall from a short rope. I told you to do something about this!” She flung up her hand at all of Yellow who scowled at that, closing her eyes and trying to reel in her temper, mouth still tingling and stomach knotted up in a way she was insistent to ignore. She didn’t open her eyes again until the flaring heat in her veins had died down.

When she did Blue was looking up at her, left hand planted on her hip and right dangling at her side, the chain hanging between them and she sighed. 

“We need to get out of here quickly…” Yellow’s voice was a low rumble as they moved.

They peaked out of the alley to find the road empty.

They quickly made their way down to the docks and could see the large royal navy galleon pulled into port at the far side of the docks. 

“Let’s make this quick,” Yellow mumbled as the move down to the ships, where several crews seemed to be getting ready to cast off.

A young man in a red captain’s coat was watching some deckhands load up some crates when they approached him.

“Just let me take care of this…,” Blue mumbled grumpily under her breath as they walked up to him. Yellow frowned at that. She had a good idea of what Blue was going to do.

“Are you the captain of this fine vessel?’ Blue asked sweetly, her annoyed tone from before gone in an instant, and the man, more boy almost, looked up and puffed his chest out proudly.

“Aye. The Serpent.” He looked fondly at the ship.

“Oh, and where is the Serpent headed?” She asked with sweetly fake interest. 

“Just some delivery’s to the mainland. Nothing exciting.” He shrugged. 

“Perhaps a gallant captain like yourself could help my friend and me then. We’ve been stuck on the island for a week now after some errant winds sank our vessel, no one can take us to the mainland.”

Yellow couldn’t see Blue’s face but she knew the blue-eyed captain was making that seductive face she was so famous for.

“Oh… I don’t usually allow passengers…,” he hedged.

“We’re at your mercy.” Blue reached out to grab his shoulder and his face flushed.

“A-aye, I’ll take you ashore.” He nodded and Blue smiled brightly.

“Thank you… so much.” There was a certain lilt to her voice as she said this before she moved past the captain and up the gangplank to board, Yellow right at her back, a scowl on her face.

“Ta-da” Blue grinned at her as they settled into a small corner away from the crew. Yellow grunted in response, not looking at Blue.

“What’s got you all sour now?” Blue frowned, nudging her with her shoulder as they settled onto the ground with their things.

“Nothing…,” she grumbled, turning away. 

“Tch, fine,” Blue huffed, leaning against the wall, turned away from Yellow, who sat frowning.

There was a burning, bubbling in her gut ever since they had approached the boy of a captain. Blue’s flirty tone had riled something up in her and she did her best to shove the sizzling anger and agitation back down, though she did a poor job, she would admit. 

Within the hour the anchor pulled up and they were heading for the mainland. The gentle rocking of the ship did wonders to soothe Yellow’s frazzled nerves. They had a good three hours before they made landfall. 

She wondered where her ship and crew were at this moment. No doubt Jasper had taken command of the ship.

She was a good sailor, but very one-track minded when it mattered. The rest of the crew would rebel before they followed her for very long. 

She snorted at that.

“What are you laughing at?” Blue looked at her, the first words they’d spoken to each other in an hour. 

“I’m just wondering where my ship is and how the crew is fairing.”

“Knowing your crew, they probably all killed each other by now,” Blue snorted and Yellow couldn’t help but smirk, it was a greater possibility then she’d like to admit. 

They were a rough bunch she’s picked up from all over, but they were the best at what they did, and when she forced them to cooperate The Cluster ran practically by itself. 

She didn’t like to brag, but there was no one on her ship who was a better shot, duelist, sailor or navigator and they all knew it, which was why they did what she told them too, without her there they would have no clear leader, and they could fight amongst each other at the best of times.

“It’s possible,” she admitted with a bob of her head. “

“I’m worried about my sister…,” Blue admitted after a moment of silence. “I know the crew will take care of her, they adore her, but she’s really not fit to captain…”

“She’s your first mate…,” Yellow made a face as she turned to look at Blue. .

“And she’s mighty good at relaying my orders and making sure they get carried out the way I want, but she’s never been good at making the orders,” Blue explained, leaning back and rolling her eyes. “She’s tender at heart.” 

“A tender-hearted pirate…,” Yellow scoffed. 

“You scoff, yet you’re quite well known for letting women and children go free when you commandeer a ship,” Blue challenged. 

“What’s there to be gained in the slaughter of children?” Yellow grunted, not looking at her.

“True enough, but it never stopped other seadogs.” 

“Well, I’m not them...” Yellow glared at the deck in front of her.

“You’re right about that.” Blue agreed with a knowing little smirk. A long minute passed. “I need to get back to her soon… I’m all she has.” The smirk faded and she bit her bottom lip anxiously. 

“Orphans too?” Yellow rolled her head to regard Blue through half-lidded eyes, the rocking of the ship was lulling her into sleep. Its familiar comfortableness had that effect on her. 

“By choice.” Blue’s voice took on a certain hardness that made Yellow’s eyes narrow as she looked at the other woman’s profile. Her mouth was pulled into a tight line and her eyes were staring out at nothing. 

What did that mean?

Blue offered nothing else as way of explanation and Yellow just hummed. Letting her eyes droop closed as she listened to the crashing of the waves against the ship and the cawing of the gulls flying overhead. Damn, she was tired. 

“Spose’ we should get you back to her then,” she mumbled, letting herself drift off to sleep, not catching the blue eyes now locked onto her.


	7. Chapter 7

Yellow was shaken awake the moment the ship made landfall by Blue gently shoving on her shoulder.

"Wake up, we need to go." Blue's voice was whispering in her left ear.

She grunted, opening her eyes only because she had to.

"What?" she grumbled, looking around.

"We've pulled into port. We need to go." Blue started to stand and helped pull the blonde up to her feet with her. She was still shaking off the last of the sleep from her nap as she did.

"Quickly…" Blue tugged her along jerkily, her right hand wrapped tightly around Yellow’s left, the latter still trying to get the feeling back in her legs, but could sense the urgency in her voice.

"What is it?" She cocked a brow as Blue tugged her along, glancing at the crew around her. 

“They’ve been looking suspiciously at us for the last fifteen minutes. They recognize us, they just can’t remember from where…,” she hissed, pulling Yellow along quickly down the gangplank. “That won’t last…”

Yellow hummed in agreement as they walked quickly down the pier.

“Wait a minute, aren’t you…!” a man suddenly spoke up and they didn’t wait to see what he was going to say before they took off at a run down the dock, wooden planks thumping loudly beneath their boots; the chain jingled loudly. 

They didn’t stop until they had moved out of sight of the ships, ducking through several twisting and turning alleyways. They panted, standing in the dark between two grimy buildings as they caught their breath.

“That was to close…,” Blue grumbled. 

“A necessary risk, we couldn’t have done another twenty miles of rowing and now that we know they're there, the navy would have picked us up for certain,” Yellow grumbled, grimacing as she carefully adjusted the cuff wrapped around her wrist. The running had made it twist and move, rubbing relentlessly on the skin beneath. 

Blue grumbled to herself as she pulled the sky blue bandana from her head and slapped it on Yellow’s, adjusting the ties.

“Wh- What are you doing!?” Yellow scowled, struggling against the hands tying the bandana around her forehead. 

“Will you just fuckin’ hold still!” Blue growled, finishing the knot before leaning back to look at her work. The bright blonde hair was covered completely by the fabric. It wasn’t really Yellow’s look, but they needed to do something about it.

Yellow made a sour face and Blue rolled her eyes at it. 

“You can pout all you want, but your loud as hell hair is going to get us hung.” Blue jutted out a hip and laid her left fist on it. “You don’t have to like it, but while we’re walking around town you need to keep it covered. There are probably more wanted posters of us in every town on the coast.” 

Yellow sighed. She knew Blue was right, she and Blue were incredibly infamous, there were wanted posters for them up in the coastal towns even when they weren’t actively being chased by the royal navy, and she could admit, she was very distinct in appearance. 

“Fine,” she grumbled, adjusting the bandana more to her liking, pushed down a little to just above her eyes, covering nearly all of the scar on her forehead. 

“I don’t think blue is really your color…,” she hummed, making Yellow’s frown deepen. “Eh, it’ll do for now.” she shrugged as they started moving again, out of the alley and into the middle of town. 

“You’re not exactly the most inconspicuous person…,” Yellow mumbled, glancing at the silver-haired woman with her shirt nearly hanging half-open. 

“No, but next to you, people won’t notice me, and if they do, I guarantee you they aren’t looking at my face…” the last part was little more than a mumble. Yellow glanced at her out of the corner of her eye.

“We have everything we need for now, there will be plenty of other towns along the coast as we move east. We need to get out of here.” Yellow pulled them along through the crowd of people.

The market was understandably busy for a late afternoon, no one seemed to give Yellow a second look now, though they were quick to move out of her way as she walked straight ahead, glowering at anyone that happened to make eye contact with her. Blue rolled her eyes as she watched this. 

For someone who was supposed to be keeping a low profile, the blonde had a way of drawing attention to herself even at the worst of times. Her pride would not allow her to bow her head, ever. 

It was turning out to be a pain in her ass, but Blue couldn’t help but respect that. Yellow didn’t make herself smaller for anyone; unfortunately, not even herself when it could save her life. 

“What?” Yellow tilted her head questioningly as she noticed those cerulean eyes on her. 

“Nothing…” she shook her head. Yellow made a noise but didn’t say anything else. 

“Oh, those are pretty…” Blue pulled them to a stop to better look at some jewelry sitting on a vendor’s table.

“Blue…” Yellow rolled her eyes. They did not have time for this. 

“Just let me look a moment… are you that eager to go traipsing through the forest?” she snorted before turning back to the table. 

“I’m eager to be away from these crowds…,” was her low reply as Blue looked over the offered wares. 

She was standing there watching the people pass by when she felt that familiar, airy brush of her clothes.

Her right hand snatched out and wrapped tightly around the little wrist that had been reaching into her pocket, a piece of eight in his hand. 

She glared down at the dirty little boy looking up at her with wide, scared, brown eyes. His face was smudged with dirt and his clothes were little better than rags; his feet bare.

“Whoa!” Blue blinked at the little boy she’d never even seen walk past them. 

He was practically shaking in Yellow’s grip.

“Nice try, but not quick enough…” She smiled, not her usually haughty, condescending smile either, though, it had a certain amused quality to it; it was disarming. She dropped his wrist and he took a step back, looking up at her curiously, a piece of eight still clutched in his hand. 

The blonde knelt down, left arm stretched back awkwardly from the cuff and reached into her pocket with her right, pulling out another silver coin, she held it up for him to see, and then palmed it, closing her hand and turning it over, then turned it back over, opening her hand to reveal her now empty palm. The boy gasped. She repeated the motion and the coin seemed to reappear, the boy’s eyes were blown wide with awe as he looked at the metal with a bright smile. 

Blue too was in a state of surprise, but not by the trick so much as her companion, down on one knee, entertaining the hungry-looking street urchin.

Standing back up she flicked the coin off her thumb. The boy scrambled to catch it and looked back up Yellow curiously. She jerked her head.

“Take it and go.” 

He hesitated a second before running off into the crowd, disappearing from sight.

“We kind of need that money…,” Blue interjected, watching the little boy till he had vanished. 

“He needed it more,” was Yellow’s resolute answer as she turned to look at her. “We have food. If you’re done, let’s get moving.”

They moved through town without further incident until they were nearing the edge of the woods.

“We’re being followed…,” Blue whispered and she felt Yellow tense up, ready to fight or run. She couldn’t help but giggle. “Not like that…” Blue grinned knowingly at Yellow’s confused face, motioning behind them. 

Turning around they found five kids, none of which could have been older than seven, except the boy she’d given the money too. They looked at each other before the same little boy as before stepped forward and held out one of the pieces of eight Yellow had given him. 

Getting the hint she took the coin and the other kids all came closer as she knelt back down, watching as she made the coin vanish. The all made impressed noises, one small girl with dark curly hair, even grabbing the blonde’s hand, turning it every which way, looking for the coin, which made Yellow’s lips pull up at the corners. 

Pulling her hand back, she reached behind the little girl’s ear and pulled back to reveal the coin. Squeals and giggles of delight were her answer. 

Yellow reached into her pocket and pulled out another coin, holding one in each hand and slapping her hands together, making the kids jump, before pulling them apart to reveal only one.

They went wild and Blue couldn’t help but giggle at that and the little smile on Yellow’s face as she entertained them. 

After a couple more she gave the coin back to the boy before they turned to go, the kids waved and after them as they walked into the woods before scampering back into town. 

Yellow was in a good mood, despite how she could feel Blue’s eyes on her. 

“What?” she finally asked, turning to look at her.

“What do you mean ‘what’, what was that?” She threw her left arm out behind her where they had left the kids behind. “And how did you do that?” she asked and Yellow sighed, shrugging.

“Their just sleight of hands tricks.” She pulled a coin out of her pocket, showing Blue how the coin ‘vanished’ by being tucked into her sleeve.

“And the kids?” She cocked her head as Yellow reached up and pulled the other woman’s bandana off her head shoving it back toward her.

“I assure you, those kids have little in the way of levity in their lives, I would know…” she mumbled the last part under her breath. 

“You don’t strike me as the type who likes kids” 

“Well, you don’t know me,” Yellow huffed, and not with the same biting tone that the comment might have been delivered with before, this time it was simply a statement of fact and Blue had to agree. 

She really didn’t know Yellow outside her fearsome reputation, despite their many, many encounters over the years. 

The chain on her wrist jerked a little and Blue frowned.

“This needs to come off…” 

Yellow glanced down, they were out of town but their hands were still clasped together. Habit at this point.

She slipped her fingers free from Blue’s, letting the chain unwind from around their arms and letting them put a little distance between each other.

She hummed in thought 

~ ~ ~ 

“I’m not sure this is going to work…” Blue pursed her lips as they knelt on the ground, the chain laid out between them on a rock; another rock gripped in Yellow’s right hand. She flexed her right hand nervously in the shackle. One misplaced blow would shatter her hand to pieces. 

“We’ll find out won’t we…” Yellow reared back and Blue closed her eyes as she brought the rock smashing down on the chain. Blue winced, but upon feeling nothing, opened her eyes to find the chain sitting there, unscratched. Yellow grunted raising the rock again, and again it sat there whole and mocking them. 

After the twentieth strike, Blue didn’t even flinch anymore, simply watched Yellow smash at the chain fruitlessly. 

“Why. Won’t. it. Break!” Yellow roared between every smash of the rock that did nothing but scratch the surface of the metal.

“Yellow…,” Blue called, but the blonde only continued to smash at the iron. “Yellow!” 

“What?!” She turned to her with a snarl, sweat dripping down her forehead.

“This isn’t working you big, blonde, brute!” She yelled right back, frowning. If Blue knew anything, it was that a frustrated Yellow was an angry Yellow and this was going to go downhill fast if she didn’t stop her. 

“Well, if you have any ideas I’d love to hear them!” she growled.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” She pulled out the thin-bladed knife from her belt and Yellow looked at her cautiously. 

~ ~ ~ 

Yellow sighed from her place laying flat on her back in the grass, left arm stretched above her head as Blue wiggled the knife blade in the keyhole on her own shackle and cursing under her breath. She’d been at this for the last hour at least, trying in vain to pick the lock.

Yellow closed her eyes, listening to the wind in the trees, as well as the occasional curse or annoyed noises coming from Blue.

It was possible to pick the shackles, of course, but it had become apparent to Yellow half an hour ago that it wasn’t possible for Blue, to do it. 

“Fuck!” 

“Oh yes… this is working so much better than my rock, what a fool I was…” Yellow’s monotone voice made Blue scowl.

“Shut up…,” she bit out, fiddling with the lock for a few more minutes before dropping her hands with a mighty sigh. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Oh, and what led you to that conclusion?” Yellow let her head loll to the side to regard Blue with bored, half-lidded eyes, one eyebrow hiked up. 

How badly Blue wanted to throw something at the other woman’s head…

“Let’s just go, we’re not going to get out of these until we get to my ship. There’s not a lock in all the seven seas that Rose can’t pick.” They both stood, Yellow shouldering their sack of supplies as they continued moving eastward through the woods.

The woods was hot and muggy, making them both sweaty and tired as they trekked through the thick foliage and underbrush.

It would have been easier to walk along the coast, but then they would have also been far easier to spot, especially by any royal navy patrolling the coast looking for them. 

The sun was hanging low in the sky when Blue suddenly stopped, looking further off into the woods. 

“Do you hear that?” she asked.

Yellow strained her ears but all she heard was the ambient sounds of the forest.

“I don’t hear anything…” 

Without a word Blue pulled them farther into the woods, Yanking Yellow along behind her.

“Blue!” She huffed, but she was too tired to put up much of a fight and let the other pirate drag her along until they found what Blue had been hearing.

“A river!” Blue’s smile lit up her face.

“It certainly is that,” Yellow agreed, looking at the dark, gently flowing water. 

“I’d kill for a bath right now…,” Blue hummed, pulling at the collar of her shirt with a disgusted look.

“We don’t have time for that, Blue…,” Yellow started, only for Blue to spin on heel to face the blonde, their noses only a few inches apart as Blue looked up at her, standing on her toes.

“It has been a hellish few days, I am not walking another step until I get my bath.” lips pulled back over her teeth as they glared at each other for several long moments.

“Tch, do whatever you want,” Yellow grumbled, and no sooner then she had did Blue start kicking off her boots and pulling at her corset

Yellow strained her neck to look anywhere else but at the other captain as the sound of rustling, clothes filled the otherwise quiet air of the woods. 

Her shirt was slid all the way down to Yellow’s cuff, out of the way and her cheeks burned.

The chain tugged and Yellow reluctantly walked forward, still not looking as she sat on the river bank as Blue sunk into the water up to her neck. It was deep, even right on the banks. 

“It’s perfect,” Blue sighed blissfully, running her wet hands through her hair.

Yellow hummed, staring off into the forest. 

Blue looked at her with a frown and couldn’t stop the words in her head from slipping past her lips.

“Do you truly find me so abhorrent?” 

Yellow’s head whipped around to look at her at that, thankfully she was sunk down to her collar.

“What?” She narrowed her eyes in confusion. 

“Am I that ugly to you that you can’t bear to look at me?” Blue asked, it had bothered her for years, why Yellow alone seemed so unaffected by her in the slightest.

“What are you talking about?” Yellow’s face scrunched up, she hadn’t the slightest idea what Blue was talking about. 

“I’m talking about how since the day we met you’ve always been completely unaffected by my looks. Not even a twitch in your stony facade.” Blue pursed her lips. For the first time in a long time, she felt embarrassed, but it had been eating at her for a long time. 

“You believe I think you’re hideous?” Yellow frowned

“What else would it be?” Now it was Blue’s turn to be confused. “Putting aside the obvious, even when we’re not stepping on each other’s toes at sea your an ass that can hardly look at me.” It was Blue’s turn to frown.

‘Because I don’t trust you.” Narrowed amber eyes regarded her and Blue blinked at that.

“You are beautiful, and you know it, and use it to lie and manipulate everyone around you. You always flirt and use your body and charms to get what you want and that means I can’t trust a word that has ever come out of your mouth,” Yellow said this with a certain chill in her voice. Now that she was getting to air her grievances with the other captain she would. 

“I don’t always…,” Blue started.

“You did it to get us on the ship. You tried to use it to get our room at the inn and I’ve seen you do it countless times before. You don’t seem to take anything seriously and have no qualms about using your beauty to get what you want. So no, just because I don’t fall for your games like some prepubescent cabin boy doesn’t mean I think you’re hideous, but the past has taught me to be distrustful of people like you.” Yellow frowned.

They sat in awkward silence for a long while before Blue finally spoke, voice quiet.

“Isn’t that want everyone wants though?” she asked quietly and Yellow looked back at her with a clear question on her face. “A little of my attention for themselves? A man can stare at me for the better part of an hour and still not be able to tell me what color my eyes are.” she looked down at her rippling reflection in the water, cerulean eyes starring back at her. “They want to believe that they could have me… but I belong to no one.” she bit out, looking back up at Yellow with an intensity that made a shiver run down her spine.

“If they volunteer themselves to do something for me just because I smiled at them, or asked them nicely I fail to see how that makes me a deceitful serpent.” 

“It doesn’t…,” Yellow admitted. If people were stupid enough to throw themselves at the feet of someone who gave them a wink, it was their own fault. “...but we both know you do it intentionally, and it makes me wary of you, and that’s what you asked.”

“I suppose I did…,” she admitted quietly. 

They didn’t say much for a little while as blue ran her fingers through her long hair. 

“You know…,” Blue started, drawing Yellow’s gaze to her. “You could really use a bath too… you smell and not good”

“I don’t want a bath…,” Yellow grumbled, face reddening.

“You can get in yourself, or I can pull you in, clothes and all,” Blue warned and Yellow glared at her. A silver brow rose in a silent question of the blonde’s decision. 

With a half sighing growl she started pulling off her boots until she caught Blue watching her.

“Stop looking at me,” she grumbled.

“I didn’t realize you were shy…” She smirked but turned away regardless. After a minute she felt the water shift and turned back around to see the blonde sunk up to her nose in the water and she laughed. “Very shy, apparently.” A stream of bubbles and an annoyed sound were Yellow’s answer.

Her arm was dangling from the bank, keeping their shirts and her coat dry on the chain in the grass. 

“Doesn’t that feel better?” Blue smiled and before she could stop her, reached out with her free hand and pushed the blonde all the way under with a grin. 

Yellow shot up, spluttering and glaring.

“Your hair needed a soak too.” Blue smiled sweetly. Yellow’s response was to splash her in the face.

Blue’s mouth hung open in shock before she splashed her back, setting off a chain of splashing and screaming. 

By the end they were both panting and the clothes they had been trying to keep dry had been dragged into the river and were soaked. 

“We are quite good at getting things wet…” Blue mumbled holding up the wet fabric on the chain.

Yellow just sighed, slicking her hair back.

She turned and half threw the drenched coat up onto the grass, unaware of Blue watching her back, unable to help her thoughts as she watched the muscles in the blondes scarred and freckled back flex with the movement.

“What?” Yellow asked, glancing at her over her shoulder.

“Nothing…,” Blue mumbled, sinking down to her nose in the cool water. 

Their shirts were still wet by the time they had settled into a small alcove of rocks to sleep for the night, as was Yellow’s coat, but she left it hanging on the chain, slowly drying.

With Blue’s knife, it took little effort to start a fire. 

They sat quietly side by side, eating their rations and slugging rum from the bottle. 

“I’ll take the first watch and you can sleep,” Yellow mumbled, leaning back against a rock, taking a long drink of the amber liquid in the bottle.

Blue just nodded, laying on the blonde’s left side, her chained arm beneath her as she laid on her side.

She glanced up at Yellow, watching the blonde’s face as the light from the fire flickered across her sharp features, creating crisp shadows in some places but mostly she was watching how it lit those amber eyes ablaze with flame.

There was something hypnotic about those eyes and Blue just couldn’t help but stare into them whenever she had the chance.

She fell asleep thinking about those burning eyes. 

Yellow glanced at her when she started to snore before shaking her head and going back to her starring into the fire, listening to the quiet noises of the forest.


	8. Chapter 8

Yellow woke the next morning, stiff and sore from yet another night laying in an awkward position on the ground. She briefly considered not even opening her eyes. Maybe if she was lucky she could just lay here with her eyes closed and never have to move again, that was what she really wanted at this moment.

To not be chained to Blue, to not be out in the middle of the forest and not wondering where her ship was and if her crew had managed to not kill each other or sink the damn thing yet. 

She just wanted to cease being for a short merciful little while.

She let herself lay there in the dark behind her eyelids for a little while longer before finally peeling them open, though under great internal protest.

The trees blocked out most of the harsh sunlight so it didn't take much for her eyes to adjust to what morning light was filtering through the leaves.

The first thing she noticed was Blue, sitting up beside her, leaning back against the large outcropping of rocks they had used to make their camp. 

She had her knife in hand and was carefully whittling at a long stick to a point. 

She slowly started to sit up, drawing Blue’s gaze.

“Morning,” she said distractedly as she went back to her stick. Yellow grunted in response, carefully stretching out her neck as she pulled herself up to sit, her muscles slowly coming to life.

She missed her bed more and more with every passing day, she thought idly as a jaw cracking yawn worked its way out of her. Blue glanced at her and smirked, watching the groggy captain come around.

With a sigh she dug into their bag and pulled out some of the dried meat, turning to watch Blue as she chewed on the leathery food. 

“What are you doing?” she mumbled around the mouthful of food.

“I…,” she started, shaving another bit of wood off the tip of the stick. “...am going to have fish for breakfast,” she said matter of factly. 

“You’re going to spearfish?” she asked, cocking a brow at that and glancing back over at the river.

“I am.” She tossed the knife down, it stuck, blade pinned into the ground between Yellow’s knees and it was at this moment the blonde seemed to have an epiphany as she looked at the blade buried into the dirt

Yellow realized that Blue could have cut her loose at any time with one quick cut while she was sleeping and that more than anything over the last few days made Yellow think. Why hadn’t she?

Either one of them could move so much quicker and easier if they weren’t attached. Blue was smart, very smart. She surely knew this. She didn’t need Yellow for anything, staying together made everything more difficult. 

If she were chained to anyone else she would have already slit their throat and cut their hand off by now.

“Come on…” Blue gave the chain a gentle tug and with a sigh Yellow stood and followed her back to the river’s edge where Blue perched herself on the bank, staring into the water. 

Yellow watched her as she sat, looking into the water for fifteen minutes, not even making a sound.

"You're not going to…," she started when Blue sprung forward, stabbing the stick into the water like a shot from a pistol. Yellow jerked, looking at the grinning woman as she pulled the stick back a fish flipping back and forth weakly as the life drained out of it.

Blue grinned victoriously, already knowing what she had been about to say. 

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked with a knowing little smirk. Yellow’s mouth snapped shut with an audible click. 

Within a few minutes, it was sizzling over the fire and filling the area with a mouthwatering smell.

Blue looked up to see Yellow looking at it out of the corner of her eye and grinned. 

“Would you like some of my fish, Yellow?” Blue asked sweetly but the grin on her mouth betrayed the tone.

“No…,” she huffed, biting down into a piece of hardtack and grimacing as it crunched between her teeth. Blue rolled her eyes.

“So stubborn…,” she mumbled under her breath as she bit into the fish, watching Yellow gnaw on the remainder of her own breakfast. 

“Why haven’t you offed me yet?” Yellow asked suddenly as they were putting out the fire.

“Do you… want me to kill you?” Blue asked, brows furrowed as she looked up at Yellow, confused. Yellow scoffed at that.

“No, I’m just curious why you haven’t when we both know that this wouldn’t be so taxing if we weren’t attached at the wrist.” She frowned. 

“Perhaps, but we did agree to not strangle each other until we were free and while I know you may not trust me… I am just as good to my word as you are,” she said, holding that amber gaze for a moment before going back to kicking dirt over the embers. “No games,” she said, not looking up. 

Yellow only watched her

They didn’t talk about it again.

~ ~ ~ 

“I’m bored…,” Blue announced by late afternoon. Yellow rolled her eyes.

“And what exactly would you like me to do about that?”

“Entertain me,” she declared.

The look on Yellow’s face told her exactly how she felt about that and she couldn’t help but grin. 

“Oh, come on, hiking through the woods so we don’t die is a little dull, you have to admit.” She nudged the blonde.

“What did you have in mind?” Yellow sighed. She was learning that in little things like this it was just so much easier to let Blue have her way and avoid a headache-inducing argument. 

“I spy something green…,” Blue suddenly said out of nowhere, making Yellow pause mid-step.

“What?” She turned to look at Blue.

“I spy something green,” she repeated, looking at Yellow expectantly, as though the phrase had any more meaning to her the second time around. She just looked back at Blue, confused

“By the gods, did you never play ‘I spy’ as a lass?” Blue looked aghast at the idea.

“I don’t know what that is, so I’m going to say no.” She started walking forward again, pulling them both along.

“It’s a game. Rose and I played it a lot when we’re young…It was one of the few things I was allowed to do...” her gaze turned distant for a second before she noticed Yellow looking at her. 

“It’s easy, I name the color of something I see and you have to guess what it is and then it’s your turn,” she explained. 

“Alright, fine.” Yellow submitted. 

“I spy something green.” 

Yellow glanced around.

“Trees?” she took a guess.

“I made it easy since it’s your first time.” she winked and Yellow pursed her lips. “Now it’s your turn.” 

“I spy…something blue…” she said after a second and Blue glanced around.

“The sky?” she guessed and Yellow shook her head.

“We’re in the woods, what else could you possibly see that’s blue?” she asked, giving Yellow a clear look of distrust but then she saw the blonde’s eyes flicker upward briefly and realized.

“Oh, maybe I underestimated your abilities. My bandana,” she said with a smirk.

“It’s a children’s game Blue and I’m in my thirties,… roughly.” she shrugged. It was hard to keep track of the years when you didn’t know exactly where you started.

“Well, what did you do for fun as a kid?” she gave the chain a yank, drawing Yellow’s attention. 

“I didn’t, I was busy surviving,” she grumbled.

“Oh? You learned all those little sleight of hands tricks while surviving?” she cocked a brow, but the smirk on her face made it clear she already knew the answer. 

“Fine, yes, I did occasionally entertain myself in ways that weren’t drinking, or stealing before I became a pirate.” She rolled her eyes, lips pulling up at the corners. “Little tricks like that, that I learned from… a mentor I had…” 

“Oh? 

Yellow just hummed, frowning now and it seemed like the conversation was over. 

“Do you want to keep playing?” she asked tentatively, sensing the sudden turn in Yellow’s mood.

“Not right now,” she mumbled, looking straight ahead of them. 

~ ~ ~ 

It had been raining for a solid two days all along the coast now.

The pouring, relentless, torrential kind of rain that made it hard to see more than a few feet in front of you at a time. 

They had slowly been trudging along through the thick, and now wet, forest. Clothes soaked through and even their boots had filled with rainwater. 

Every step in their boots and the shin-deep mud squelched wetly. 

Rivulets of water dripped constantly down Yellow’s face but she had long given up any attempt at wiping it out of her eyes, she couldn’t see even when she did.

Her coat hung, soaked from her shoulders, weighing her further down with every step.

“Is it EVER going to stop raining…,” Blue practically had to yell to be heard over the pouring rain, her hair was plastered flat to her head, her clothes also hung off her in a soggy mess. She looked like a rat that had been thrown overboard. 

Yellow was too soggy and grouchy to find any amusement in it though. She had had her fill of rain for a while too. She was sick and tired of her feet being wet and cold, not to mention every other part of her.

“It’ll either stop, or we’ll drop dead and I won’t care anymore...either is fine…,” Yellow yelled back, trudging along, Blue was falling behind if the constant tugging on the chain was anything to go by.

Yellow winced every time the metal dug into her skin. It had become raw with the constant twisting and tugging of the cuff. At one point dried blood had been flaking off the inside, though it had been all washed away by the constant rain at the moment. 

“Will you please walk faster?” She didn’t mean it to sound as harsh as it sounded, being yelled over the rain. Blue looked up at her from beneath the hair plastered to her face and frowned.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re fucking sinking into the mud with every step!” she yelled back with a glare and Yellow just frowned, it took every ounce of her willpower to hold her tongue. Yelling back would not make anything better and the last thing they needed was to be fighting.

The sun was dipping below the horizon and they were both soaked and tired; tempers flaring easily. Yellow just sighed, running her right hand through her sodden hair tiredly. 

Her silence only seemed to further upset Blue though, who was now passing her, stomping through the mud.

“Happy?” she bit out as she passed the blonde, who could only sigh again as she followed. She was just too tired to bite back.

Blue was so busy purposely stomping through the mud she didn’t notice them cresting a hill until where her foot should have met the flat ground, it did not.

Blue screamed as she went careening forward, jerking Yellow right along with her as they tumbled down the hill, sliding through the mud and water, hitting sticks and rocks all the way down. They rolled to a stop Yellow flopping down on top of Blue in a muddy puddle at the bottom. 

With a grimace, Yellow quickly flipped herself off of Blue who pulled her head out of the water with a gasp, face caked in mud.

Yellow laid panting on her back in the mud, rain splattering down on her face. She just closed her eyes, letting the water come down. She couldn’t find the energy to stand. Several parts of her body ached dreadfully. No doubt she’d hit an array of things as they fell down the hill. Her left wrist burned from knocking the cuff into it all the way down. 

Blue carefully pushed herself up, spitting mud out of her mouth as she did, but didn’t make any move to get up yet.

Yellow somehow found the power to sit up, trying in vain to wipe the mud off her face with equally muddy hands. She felt so defeated in every way.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one. 

Blue’s frustrated scream made her jump.

She watched the other captain bury her face in her hands as she sat in the mud, slight tremors wracking her body and it was with a start that Yellow realized she was crying. 

Yellow sat in the mud, rainwater running down her face, dumbfounded, watching Blue.

For the first time in a long time, she felt helpless and she didn’t have a clue what she should do. The idea of trying to somehow comfort her was so foreign to her it bordered on bizarre, but it felt more than wrong to just sit and watch her cry too. Blue may not even want her to do anything, but for some reason, the idea of doing nothing rubbed her as raw as the cuff on her wrist.

Blue couldn’t help the scream of complete and utter frustration that tore its way out of her throat and it felt like the plug had been pulled and all her exhaustion and frustration came pouring out in tears right after it. She pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes, she didn’t want to look at Yellow nor have the blonde see her, here, at what felt like her lowest. 

She was just so tired and the skin of her right wrist stung every time the cuff touched it, which was always. Rose was probably out of her mind with worry for her as well. She sniffed, thinking about her sister, and for the first time since this had started considered that she may never see her sister again. Something that tore her to the core. 

At this point, she was just hoping to sink into the mud and disappear. 

She didn’t even notice when Yellow moved over to sit next to her at first. She felt the blonde’s body heat radiating into her rain chilled frame first. She looked up, the tears running down her cheeks lost in the rain.

Yellow was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, arms folded on her knees and looking straight out into the forest, perhaps sensing those ocean colored eyes one her, she glanced at Blue from the corner of her eye, but said nothing.

A quiet understanding seemed to pass between them and Blue leaned her head on the blonde’s shoulder, letting her frustrations bleed down her face with the rain. 

~ ~ ~ 

After a little while, the two managed to pull themselves out of the mud and trudge back up the hill. They had stayed just beyond the treeline to avoid being spotted by any royal navy ships, but with the pouring rain that wasn’t going to be an issue and they stumbled down to the beach to wash the mud off.

Even in the pouring rain, the ocean washing away the dirt and mud did lift Blue’s mood somewhat. The salt of the ocean always had a nostalgic taste too her. Even better when it washed the gritty mud out of her mouth. 

She was even happier when they found the mouth of a cave down by the water, a cave that was dry inside with an abundance of washed-up driftwood they could use for a fire.

It was amazing how much getting dry and sitting next to the fire with some food in her, even if it was crap food, could improve her mood. 

“We should be just south of Grenada in a day or so, then we can steal or get on board a ship,” Yellow hummed. 

Blue had the idea to keep their map in one of the empty rum bottles and luckily Yellow had listened to her because the map stuffed in the bottle had been the only dry thing they had at one point. 

Blue looked up from the dried meat she was working on to peer at the blonde from beneath her finally drying hair as she poured over the map. 

Those were the first words the blonde had uttered since they fell down the hill. Blue hadn’t known what to say to her, and honestly, she still wasn’t sure what to say, at least not about the moment they’d had sitting in the mud.

“Good,” she mumbled around the meat. 

Yellow dug through the sack and pulled out a bottle of rum and handed it to Blue before pulling out a second for herself. She pulled the cork out with her teeth and spat it into the dirt before tipping the bottle back. 

“I think that’s the best idea you’ve ever had…” Blue smiled as she followed suit.

It burned her throat and in that moment nothing else had ever felt so good.

By the end of the night, Yellow wasn’t sure if it really was one of her best ideas or not. 

One bottle turned into two and the quiet atmosphere around the fire turned loud. Loud enough that Blue’s laughter and badly sung and slurred sea shanties sometimes drowned out the sound of the rumbling thunder outside, though the occasional flash of lightning did further light up their camp inside the cave.

Yellow just watched her, highly amused. Only having just started on her second bottle while Blue’s was nearly empty. She set the empty ones outside, wedged between rocks to fill with clean rainwater. 

“Come on Yellow…,” Blue wheedled, poking the blonde in the shoulder. “Sing with me.” She had plopped herself on a small rock sitting directly across from the blonde, the chain hanging limply between them.

“I don’t sing, Blue.” She batted away the hand with a smirk. The happy look on Blue’s face was contagious and a complete one-eighty from where they had been only a few hours ago. “You can sing as many bad shanties as you want, but I’m fine…”

“Even the one I made up about you?” She was giving the blonde a sly look.

“No” she glared, making Blue laugh. 

“You are just no fun…,” Blue sighed, but the smile didn’t leave her face as she took another long swig and leaned back to regard Yellow with slightly unclear eyes. 

“What?” she cocked a brow, looking at Blue over the bottle as she took another long drink of the burning amber liquid. 

“Nothing…,” she said with an amused airy lilt that told Yellow exactly how drunk she was. 

Blue went quiet for a long moment but Yellow could tell by the look on her face that she was chewing on something. All she had to do was wait, and sure enough, Blue didn’t disappoint. 

“You asked me why I hadn’t offed you yet,” Blue suddenly asked with a heavy slur as she swallowed another mouthful of amber liquid. “You really wanna know?” she sing-songed.

“Not really…” She smirked around the mouth of the bottle

“Well, it’s a secret, but I’ll tell you…” Blue continued on, not even paying attention to Yellow’s answer while the latter chuckled. “You are an ass… but!” she started, holding up a finger and leaning forward. “I’m rather fond of you…,” she finally said, tapping her raised finger to the blonde’s nose, who went crossed eyed following the digit.

“Fond of me?” Yellow blinked as Blue sat back and took another long swig out of the bottle. “As in…,” she hesitated, blinking. She wasn’t nearly as sloshed as her companion but the rum was muddling her thoughts. 

“Even when you’re cranky, you're kind of cute…” Blue didn’t seem to be paying any attention to what Yellow was saying. 

“Since when?!” Yellow yelped. Blue hummed in thought, taking another long swig, the bottle nearly empty now.

“Since the galleon.” she nodded to herself, after a moment of thought, satisfied with the answer.

“When we were arrested?” 

“No, no!” Blue waved her left hand with the bottle in it. “The one with the silver, when we first met.”

“What?” Yellow didn’t know what else to say to Blue’s drunken rambling. 

“Mhmm… don’t… don’t sound so surprised!” Blue slurred. “Commanding and exacting with a razor wit… your reputation preceded you and I was kind of excited to meet you…,” she admitted, swaying a little from her spot on the rock. “You lived up to it too,” she said with a grin. “What I didn’t expect was the tall, blonde bits… and those eyes…,” she trailed off before another thought seemed to pop into her head. “A really good shot too,” she laughed to herself. 

If Yellow’s face hadn’t already been flushed from all the drinking it certainly would have been now. 

She was trying to push the hazy drunken cloud that was trying to push into her thoughts away to process what Blue had just said. 

That for years she had been attracted to her? She was having a hard time correlating this with her past interactions with Blue. She shook her head. She couldn’t think about this right now, she couldn’t get her thoughts in order.

“I… uh…” was what came out of her mouth instead. Blue grinned at her, cerulean eyes glassy and bright, she leaned forward on her toes, coming off the rock, her face barely a few inches from Yellow’s. She could feel the warmth and smell the rum on her breath. 

“See… even right now, I could just kiss you senseless…”, her low voice trailed off, leaning forward. Yellow stilled at that, waiting, when Blue pitched to the side, falling to the ground.

“Blue!” Yellow yelped but the other captain only started to laugh, still laying on the ground. She rolled over onto her back, the empty bottle still clutched in her hand as she looked up at Yellow, lit by the flickering flames of the fire.

“No one should be that attractive…,” she mumbled to herself, watching the light bounce off the blonde’s face, making her eyes and hair seem to glow in a golden light. The flush on Yellows face darkened 

“Are you alright?” she mumbled, reaching out a hand. Blue grabbed it, letting Yellow pull her back up, this time she settled right next to her on the ground, her body weight pressing against the blonde’s side.

"I'm fine," she drawled, her head leaning on Yellows shoulder, her eyes shut.

Yellow hummed and they lapsed into silence for a while.

"You can trust me ya know…," she spoke up after a while.

Yellow hummed, taking a long swig of her own bottle. She was not nearly drunk enough for this she decided.

But she was just drunk enough to be looser with her words.

"The last time I trusted a cunning trickster like you, I got burned… literally," she mumbled under her breath, itching to reach up and run her fingers over the scarring on her upper right arm. A grim reminder of betrayal she would carry with her all the rest of her days.

"I don't want to burn you…," was the groggy, grumbled reply.

Yellow chuckled at the irony of that. Maybe not intentionally, but everything Blue did seem to set her on fire inside.

Yet

She glanced at the chain still clamped around her wrist and thought about the knife she knew was tucked in Blue’s belt. Where she could have used it at any time. 

“Maybe, I believe that…,” she mumbled under her breath.

Her answer was a quiet snore and she blinked, craning her neck to look and see that Blue had fallen asleep leaned against her. With a roll of her eyes, Yellow carefully slid her to lay on her side.

She stayed up a while longer, watching the fire and listening to the rain outside and the slowly distancing rumble of thunder.


	9. 9

Blue came around sometime around mid-morning, groggy, and with a hangover as one would expect. Her head was pounding with every beat of her heart and her mouth felt like she’d swallowed a handful of sand. She was feeling the soreness of their tumble down the hill yesterday as well.

Her whole body ached dully, though that was mostly drowned out by the pain in her head. She felt like she’d fallen from the crows nest.

Which coincidentally she’d done the last time she’d been drunk on The Menagerie. Luckily the rigging had broken most of her fall. 

She slowly peeled her eyes open, blinking into the dull half-light that was filtering into the cave. The sunlight momentarily took her by surprise but there it was, long beams of light were filtering in from out of the clear blue sky peeking in from the mouth of the cavern. 

For two days she had been wishing for sun and now that it was here she wished it would just go away; it made her pounding head throb even harder. 

She reached up and covered her eyes with her left hand, trying to block out as much of the light as possible; her eyelids were failing her. 

What had even happened last night? 

It was with that thought that she scoured her brain for the memories of the past night. After a foggy second they seemed to come slamming back into place and she groaned loudly behind her hand as she clearly remembered how she had let herself run off at the mouth about her attraction to the golden pirate last night.

How she had thought her attractive from the first moment they had met to telling her that she wanted to just kiss her stupid… Blue groaned again, clearly remembering the slack jawed look on Yellow’s face.

She was never drinking again.

She knew that was a lie even as she thought it. 

She wasn’t drinking again while she was attached to the blonde. That was a more manageable promise. 

A rustling of fabric made her turn to her right, where Yellow was laying beside her, her right arm draped across her waist and grumbling something in her sleep, cheek pressed to the ground and her mouth open, drooling. 

It was rather cute. 

Blue pursed her lips at that thought as she watched her sleep. She wished she had just been a drunk spouting off nonsense last night, that none of what she said was true, it would certainly have made this much easier. Hell, it would have been easier to just kill Yellow and make her escape on her own. 

Even if she had a change of heart though, which she hadn’t, she had given her word and had meant it when she said hers was just as good as Yellows. 

Blue frowned, Yellow wasn’t wrong. She played mind games and used her charm and gods given assets to get by on occasion, after all, that was what had been pounded into her head since childhood, that her beauty was all the value she had, all she was worth; so why shouldn’t she use it for herself? 

But she was true to her word, when it was given; which she would admit, was rarely for that reason. 

She was a pirate after all.

She could also admit that the situation had changed. 

She didn’t know what she felt anymore, she’d always been attracted to the other captain, but it wasn’t just a magnetic physical attraction anymore. 

The last five days chained to the blonde had given her a little more insight into the other woman. 

She’d always imagined that Yellow was always stoic and serious with a penchant for throwing members of her own crew overboard and shooting anything that mildly annoyed her between burning royal navy ships to the ground and robbing merchant ships blind.

So the dry humored, quietly comforting woman with a soft spot for children and a penchant for sleight of hand trickery was something she had never expected in her wildest dreams. 

And if she were perfectly honest she had certainly had a few of those, where the blonde captain was heavily featured. 

Seeing Yellow smile, not that haughty smirk or sneer that was usually plastered to her face had done something inexplicable to the silver haired woman. 

She squeezed her eyes shut. 

What was she supposed to say to Yellow now? She’d shoved her foot so far in her mouth she was choking on it. There was no possible way Yellow wouldn’t remember last night.

She didn’t want to think about this anymore. Her head and body throbbed sharply, not to mention she was burning up. She squeezed her eyes shut. 

She laid there a while, wallowing in drunken induced stupidity for a while when Yellow began to move beside her, her sleepy grumbling coming to an end as she came back to consciousness. 

Blue watched her from narrowed eyes. 

She pushed herself up, running her hand through her short, sunlight colored hair and yawned as she scratched her head. 

She glanced at Blue tiredly and rubbed at her eyes. 

Blue stayed still, not yet ready to face Yellow, though at the moment she wasn't sure she’d ever be ready to face her; so why delay the inevitable? She sighed internally and sat up, looking down at her hands. 

She could feel those amber eyes on her, she felt flushed under her stare,

“We need to get moving,” the blonde grumbled under her breath and Blue nodded wordlessly, only making a sound in her throat as they stood and started picking up their camp.

Yellow packed up the bottles of water and pulled some food out of their supply bag, holding it out to Blue who took it without a word. 

Yellow had no doubts that Blue remembered everything that had transpired the night before if the way she absolutely refused to look at her was any indication. 

Normally she would have already made at least two jokes at Yellow’s expense by now, instead she kept her head down and ate her food quietly.

It was probably better this way, she still wasn’t sure what to even say to her.

They packed up with few words and tracked back up the beach to the cover of the trees now that the storms had blown over, leaving them exposed on the beach. 

Blue felt sick as they walked through the woods. The rain had cleared up and the sun was out but all that did was make the air muggy, a heavy weight on her skin. Her stomach had been churning ever since she woke up and the throbbing behind her eyes had only intensified as they walked, the heat was making her sweat and her skin flushed. Hours of constant trekking had done nothing to help her hangover. 

Yellow was looking at the map as they walked and she had barely said anything all morning. 

She should be relieved that Yellow didn’t say anything about it, but at the same time it only made her feel worse. 

She hadn’t said anything to her about the things she’d said last night and that only made the gnawing pit in her stomach grow. It had seemed like they were finally coming to an understanding, now she had to go and shove her foot in her mouth by giving voice to thoughts she had never intended to give voice too. 

She could tell Yellow was not going to bring it up, why would she? She probably thought she had lost her mind, or was so drunk she was talking nonsense, though she was certain that she wasn’t lucky enough for it to be the latter. 

Perhaps she should just be glad that Yellow didn’t seem interested in furthering her humiliation by bringing it up. She grimaced to herself, looking down at the ground as they walked.

She held up her left hand and coughed into it. She’d had a tickle in her throat ever since she woke up. Cheap rum could do that though. Honestly the fact that she hadn’t yet gone blind from all the rum she’d drank over the years was a miracle in and of itself. She cleared her throat and tried to ignore it, it would fade by morning, always did.

They continued all day in this silent fashion, every step felt harder than the last to Blue, but somehow she kept walking, trying not to move her shackle. Her wrist was so raw, blood had seeped from beneath the metal and dried on her skin; she frowned at it.

They made camp that evening in a circle of rocks just a few miles outside another seaside town, at least according to the map from what Yellow could tell. From there they would head up north via ship straight to Grenada, where hopefully Blue’s ship was waiting along with freedom from their shackles. 

Yellow frowned as she sat in the dirt, looking at the map, she knew where they were and how far they had to go and she couldn’t have been more glad that this part of their trek was nearly through, especially now that a heavy, awkward atmosphere hung around them like a cloud of smoke.

They at least had talked before, now neither of them said anything if they didn’t have to and Yellow hated it, far more than she ever thought she would. Once she wished Blue would just shut up, now she just wished she would say something, anything, but it didn’t seem like Blue wanted to talk and Yellow had no idea what she could or even should, say. 

Blue was an enigma to her in so many ways.

One day they’re starting a brawl in the middle of a tavern and not ten minutes later kissing behind said tavern, quickly followed by more fighting.The next their working together to sneak off a royal navy galleon and the morning after that their fighting with a boat oar and nearly drowning each other. 

What was she supposed to say? She still didn’t have the slightest idea how to address what Blue had said. Truth be told, she had no experience with things like this. Ever since she’d set sail on her first ship, she’d started making a name for herself by shooting any man or woman that didn’t take her seriously. Eventually no one approached her, especially as her reputation grew and she became captain of her own ship. The first sight of The Clusters colors sending ships running. 

All except The Menagerie. 

She didn’t know what she was supposed to do, especially when she looked at the situation she found herself in. They were chained together, on the run from the royal navy and until recently it wouldn’t have been inaccurate to say they were enemies. Talking about this was something she just couldn’t handle right now.

It would have to wait. 

Yellow sighed and folded up the map, slipping it back into the bottle as she glanced at Blue out of the side of her eye.

She’d been quiet all day and walking slower then normal. Hungover no doubt, she had put away quite a bit of rum last night. She wasn’t really looking any better though as the day progressed, if anything she looked worse for wear by the time they were setting up camp.

Her face was flushed and she’d been coughing off and on all day. Blonde brows furrowed between her eyes.

“Are you alright?” she finally asked, causing Blue to jerk up in surprise, glassy cerulean eyes focused on her. 

“I’m fine,” her voice was low and scratchy and it only made Yellow frown further. 

“Are you certain?” 

“Yes…,” she mumbled, looking back down at the fire. Yellow pursed her lips but said nothing else. If Blue said she was fine she had no choice but to believe her, she couldn’t make her talk. 

She put her head down and sighed silently through her nose. Getting back on a boat might help some; they were both creatures of the sea. 

The rest of the night was spent in a tense awkward silence save for the crackling of the fire and the quiet clinking of the chain.


	10. Chapter 10

Yellow knew something was wrong the minute she woke up the next morning. Something hot and solid was pressed flat against her back, making her back sweat in her coat. She craned her neck over her shoulder, only to see a blue bandanna shoved between her shoulders. 

Blue was curled up on her side, sucked up to Yellow’s back, and radiating heat like a furnace. Instead of the gentle snoring Yellow had become accustomed to as of late, the sounds coming from her back were a shallow, scratchy wheezing noise. 

“Blue?” her voice was thick with sleep as she carefully pulled away to try and sit up, trying to force herself quickly into wakefulness. She turned over, amber eyes widening as she caught a glimpse of Blue.

Her cheeks were flushed and her face was damp with sweat, stray hairs clinging to her face, and breathing shallow and wheezy. 

Yellow sat up and twisted to better face her.

“Blue…?” she called again, gently shaking the other woman’s shoulder. Silver eyebrows furrowed but her eyes didn’t open and she mumbled something under her breath. “Blue, wake up!” She shook a little harder and finally those cerulean eyes slowly, peeled open. They were cloudy and dull; unfocused.

“Huh… wha-?” She was looking at Yellow but her eyes were clouded over and it didn’t seem she was really seeing her. “Hot…” she managed to wheeze, voice thick, eyes closing again. 

Yellow frowned and gently rolled Blue onto her back, making her groan, she tried to push Yellow away but her touch was weak, feather-light on Yellow’s arm and it only made Yellow frown harder.

She was intimately aware of how hard the other woman could punch. She reached up and laid a hand on Blue’s forehead. 

She was hot to the touch.

“You’re burning up…” She grimaced, pulling her hand away. Blue’s response was a guttural sigh followed by a sharp hacking cough that made Yellow jerk back, but that seemed to help jar Blue into a slightly more conscious state as she blinked up at Yellow. 

“Wh- where are we?” 

“Still in the forest…” Yellow frowned. Blue made a grumbling noise that might have been some kind of acknowledgment. 

“We… need to go,” Blue managed to spit out, attempting to push herself up but quickly succumbing under her own body weight. Yellow barely caught her before her head bashed back against the ground. 

“Have you lost your damn mind? You're ill. You’re in no condition to stand, much less hike through the forest!” Yellow couldn’t help but snap at the ludicrous idea. 

“It’s not safe for us to stay out here…” Blue said before another coughing fit robbed her of all breath. Yellow pursed her lips. 

Much as she’d like to deny that, it was true. They were sitting in the middle of the woods and they weren’t too far from a town, their chances of someone coming upon them weren't great, but they were not as low as Yellow would have liked, that and the fact that Yellow noticed almost immediately that dark clouds on the horizon were slowly but surely heading in the same direction as them. 

It was going to rain again before long and the last thing either of them needed was to be caught out in it again; Blue especially.

“I can walk…” Blue slowly pushed herself to her feet with Yellow’s help, her hands were clammy against the blonde’s skin. “We need to leave now.” Her words were clipped. 

Yellow exhaled loudly, she didn’t like anything about this; Blue looked like death warmed over. Her skin was both flushed and pale at the same time, fever heat was radiating off her in waves and she could barely stand on her own. She wobbled dangerously if Yellow didn’t hold her aloft. 

But it didn’t seem like Blue would be dissuaded and they were just going to lose valuable time arguing over it. 

“The faster we can get to the inn in town the better than.” Yellow relented

Blue’s first few steps were jerky, but Yellow's arm threaded through hers kept her standing.

It was slow going but Yellow would hand it to her, Blue pushed to keep a normal pace, though it was clearly taxing on her.

She was nearly panting, through Yellow could tell she was trying to keep it quiet. Her steps were uneven and jarring though. Her grip on Yellow’s elbow was tight, or at least as tight as she seemed able to manage at the moment, doing her best to keep herself from swaying.

Yellow just pursed her lips and said nothing. It was clear to her that Blue wasn’t interested in discussing this, nor was she even able; so she saved her breath.

They managed for several hours but it seemed that Blue was only getting slower. She was nearly dragging her feet and sweat was dripping down her fevered red face. Not to mention that the storm clouds they had been trying to keep ahead of had caught up to them, casting them in gray shadows.

If not for the threat of more pouring rain, the clouds covering the sun that had been beating down on them was welcome at least. 

Yellow hoped it would help Blue’s condition but that didn’t seem to be the case, if anything she was steadily getting worse as they went.

Blue lagged, feet catching in the roots at their feet and stumbled forward, pulling them both to the ground. The chain bit into Yellow’s wrist painfully as it pulled her down into the still soft, and somewhat muddy ground. 

Yellow winced, some rocks and roots dug into her shins and the palms of her hands from bracing her fall. 

Blue had faired less well.

She was laying on the ground in a crumpled heap, eyes closed and panting, face twisted up in pain. She made to push herself up but only slid back into the dirt with a whimper that dug at something in the blonde she couldn’t describe. 

“I can’t…,” she hissed. 

“You have to Blue, we can’t stay here,” Yellow growled, pushing herself up onto her knees. Blue weakly shook her head in response, a small nearly imperceptible movement, as if it took to much energy to mover her head. 

“Just go…,” she mumbled, and before Yellow could yell at her in a fit that she couldn’t, Blue was grabbing clumsily at the knife in her belt and weakly pressing it out towards Yellow who took it with a bewildered look. 

Amber eyes were blown wide as she looked at the blade gripped in her fist, they slid down to Blue, whose cloudy cerulean eyes were starring tiredly up at her from behind heavily lidded eyes. “Be quick about it.” Blue murmured before letting her eyes slide back closed, her body limp on the ground as she wheezed noisily with every breath. 

Thunder rumbled overhead, the dark clouds threatening to open up on them at any moment.

Yellow’s grip on the knife handle turned white-knuckled as she looked down at Blue, lying limp in the dirt and mud, passed out or waiting for Yellow to slit her throat so she could continue on her escape, the blonde wasn’t sure.

Exhaling sharply through her nose Yellow stowed the knife in her coat pocket and grabbed Blue’s arms.

“Hm- what are you doing?” Blue’s voice was low and dull. Talking seemed to sap whatever energy she still had. 

“Just shut up,” Yellow snapped, practically slinging Blue onto her back, jerking her chained wrist, forcing Blue to sandwich her arm between her chest and Yellow’s back so the chain would reach far enough for the blonde to put both hands beneath the other woman’s thighs, holding her against her back. With a grunt, she pushed herself up to her feet, Blue leaning heavily on her back as she started forward again, carefully picking her feet over the rocks, roots, and limbs.

“Just cut me loose, you’re going to get yourself killed…,” Blue angrily bit out, but the absolute exhaustion and scratchiness in her voice drained it of any heat or authority it might have otherwise had. 

“And I thought I told you to shut up,” Yellow snapped. The position still put pressure on her cuff, Blue’s body weight caused it to dig sharply into her wrist, but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind. “We had a deal, and unless you drop dead on your own I intend to honor that,” she grumbled under her breath. 

Blue didn’t say anything but Yellow swore she could feel her eyes on her for a long while before she felt Blue’s head drop onto her shoulder heavily. 

She could feel the heat radiating off her and frowned. They were heading straight for a town, according to the map, but this would be hard to explain and they were sure to garner more attention then they wanted walking around like this. Especially if someone wanted to help and found them chained at the wrist. 

Yellow clenched her teeth as she mulled over the situation, Blue’s warm, heavy form on her back, and the rumbling, rolling thunder overhead lit a fire of urgency in her steps. 

Time seemed to drag by with every step but she kept moving, never allowing herself to falter because if she did they were both dead, and that wasn’t an option. 

If Blue was asleep or unconscious Yellow couldn’t tell, she just knew that she’d gone completely quiet and still some time ago, save for her unsteady breath on Yellow’s neck and the occasional groan or whimper. Of pain or general illness, Yellow couldn’t say, but anytime Blue made such a noise she walked just a little faster, especially once droplets of water began to patter against the ground.

She broke through some thick underbrush and trees to find herself standing at the edge of what looked like an old farm.

There was a small house on the far side of the cleared land and closest to her was a barn, slightly broken and dilapidated looking but it seemed abandoned, and any shelter was good shelter, especially as the rain began to pick up.

Yellow hiked Blue a little higher against her back as she hurried over to the barn just as the rain began to pour down in earnest.

She managed to shove one of the ajar doors open with her foot and slide them inside.

It was dim and quiet, with a few horse stalls, though there didn’t seem to be any animals inside.

Yellow trudged to the back of the barn and kicked her boot through the piles of hay, dislodging any mice or other vermin that might have made a home in the mounds. Satisfied, she knelt down to slowly and carefully as possible from her position, slide Blue from her back into the hay. Their sack of supplies falling from the unconscious woman’s back.

She made a small noise but didn’t open her eyes nor say anything, which only made Yellow frown as she sat down with a tired thump beside her.

Her breathing was still labored and Yellow didn’t have to touch her to know she was still fevered, despite the quivering of her body.

Dim gray light shined in through the broken window in the stall, though it still kept the rain out.

Looking down at Blue Yellow huffed as she slid offer jacket and carefully laid it over her.

She needed to get her fever down.

She looked around but other then the hay there was nothing inside the stall. 

Yellow slid the knife out of her coat pocket and quickly cut the sleeves off her shirt, folding them into a square and carefully, so as not to yank on Blue, held the wad of fabric out the broken window glass till it was saturated with cold rainwater. Once she was satisfied she laid it across Blue’s sweaty forehead.

If they were going to make it to Grenada Blue needed to get well enough to walk.

She looked down at the knife in her hands twirled the blade carefully between her fingers, a deep frown marring her face. 

Once it became apparent Blue couldn’t go on under her own power, she had offered up the knife as a solution and something about that chaffed Yellow, in truth she didn’t want to examine the thought any closer, but sitting here in the stillness of the barn, the only sounds being the pouring of the rain on the roof and Blue’s quiet, labored breathing didn’t leave her much to otherwise occupy her mind.

Blue had given her word that they’d work together, but something about so readily offering up the knife to let Yellow cut her loose once she realized she couldn’t go on seemed to go beyond that especially the angry and concerned tone to her words when she tried to convince Yellow that it was necessary. Her mind was taken back to the conversation they had the other night in the cave on the beach, or rather everything Blue had said that night. 

She tossed the knife up, it spun around a few times before she deftly caught it by the handle. 

Their situation only seemed to get more complicated with every passing day and she didn’t like it. 

She sighed, leaning her back against the wall. The wood was cold through the fabric of her shirt.

She reached up and rubbed the scarred skin on her right bicep.

For many years now, her thoughts had been firmly rooted in never trusting charming manipulators such as Blue, those people that knew their smile could move people to act; she had learned her lesson before. 

At least she thought she had, which was something that was rubbing her the wrong way. She’d vowed long ago that she would never be anyone’s fool again.

As she looked at Blue though, she couldn’t deny this was different. Knowing, even in her fevered condition that she was going to end up getting them killed she had offered Yellow her way out. No strings, no games or anything. 

And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, her own vow for them to work together until they were free had little to do with her quick and complete disregard of the offer. 

She sighed to herself as she glanced at Blue’s still form. 

Every time Yellow turned around over the last week she was being surprised by something. 

Usually, something caused directly or indirectly, by Blue.

Why, even when she wasn’t trying to be, did Blue have to be so… 

She brought those thoughts to a screeching halt and closed her eyes. 

She was too tired to think about this right now. 

She crossed her arms, the chain rattling quietly and trying to ignore the now constant pain in her wrist anytime the shackle made contact with her skin, as well as the blood that occasionally dripped down her arm, or onto her hand from beneath.

Something to worry about later. It was low on her list of problems at the moment. 

She sighed and tried to fall asleep. 

She listened to Blue’s labored breathing until the rain pattering on the roof won out and lulled her into a light sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

At some point in the middle of the night, the crashing thunder and lightning roused Yellow from her fitful sleep. She frowned, looking out the dark window, the occasional flash of lightning lit up the barn, otherwise, it was black as pitch inside the building. The creaking wood and rain the only noises she could hear. 

She muddled through a yawn and sat up to check on Blue, who was still laying right where Yellow had left her.

The fabric on her forehead was warm and Yellow rewet it with the cool water falling outside the window. This seemed to rouse her some.

“No…,” the word was barely a whisper on Blue’s breath. Yellow blinked down at her in the darkness of the barn.

"Blue?” Yellow asked quietly.

Instead of an answer she merely flailed a limb beneath Yellow’s coat. A quick jerk, before going completely still and quiet again.

Yellow hummed and sat back against the wall, staring out into the darkness, but even in the quiet, she could never make her mind be quiet for long.

They still had seven days before The Menagerie was set to leave Grenada, moving on to its next adventure, without its famous captain. If it was even there to start with.

That all hinged on little Rose Doyle actually taking charge of the ship and making the crew do as they had been instructed

Yellow frowned to herself at that.

Rose was not the most commanding presence. If Yellow had to guess she’d say the only reason anyone followed the curly-haired young woman’s orders was that there would be real hell to pay with Blue if not. 

Yellow had met Blue's younger sister a handful of times and given the relationship she and Blue had, it had never exactly been the friendliest of meetings, though she wouldn’t call it hostile either. Rose stayed well out of her way, and she was smart to do so.

That being said Yellow had no problems with the younger Doyle sister. She was a girl in her early twenties who did not look like she belonged on a pirate ship. She could only guess as to how the Doyle sisters ended up plundering on the high seas at the ages they did. Blue was closer to her age, but Rose would have been little more than a child at the time Blue started to become well known. 

She’d never really thought about it much, or ever really.

She glanced in Blue’s direction.

Until now. 

From all their years of acquaintance, Yellow knew little about Blue personally, but she did know the woman was well educated, which even in the higher classes was strange for women. Yellow could only guess at the reasons. Even if she wanted to ask, right now that simply wasn’t possible.

She stayed sitting there in the dark, awake, and thinking as the sun slowly began to rise. The rain didn’t lessen any but the darkness did as the sun rose behind the clouds.

Yellow pulled one of the bottles of drinking water out of the sack and pulled Blue’s mouth open, slowly pouring water down her throat. She coughed and sputtered a little bit occasionally, but most of it went down smooth.

She grumbled under her breath, something Yellow couldn’t even begin to make out, but her eyes stayed closed and any tossing she was doing quickly stilled but into a fevered sleep. 

She was still hot to the touch and Yellow sighed as she leaned her head back against the wall. Intermittently changing the cloth on Blue’s forehead and forcing water down her throat. 

At the moment that was all she could do, that and wait. She closed her eyes and let the rain lull her back to sleep. The last six days had made exhaustion settle in her bones it felt like.

She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep when she began to wake again. 

There was a noise.

She didn't open her eyes, but strained her ears to hear, listening for the sound that must have been coming from Blue.

Her blood ran cold the second she realized that she was hearing breaths other than Blues.

Carefully she peeked through her cracked open eyes to find a young man with long brown hair kneeling over Blue, his hand outstretched toward her face. 

Yellow lunged forward with a vicious snarl, grabbing up the knife that had been lying beside her in the straw.

The boy looked up, terror in his dark eyes as Yellow slammed him against the wall of the stall, the whole wall rattling with the force of the impact. Her left hand fisted into his shirt and the right held the knife up to his neck.

"Please, don't hurt me!" he squealed, shaking in her grip as she pressed the blade against the column of his throat. Yellow just growled in response to his panicked squealing.

Blue whimpered, drawing Yellow’s gaze for a moment, she frowned, she had jerked Blue by the arm when she had lurched forward. 

“Your friend looks really bad…” 

Amber eyes immediately darted back to the young man in her grip and she snarled, lips pulled back over her teeth. As she pressed the knife further into his neck, drawing a thin red line in his skin.

“I… I can help!” his voice trembled, Yellow could not only hear it but feel it in the blade. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I have some herb mixes from the town doctor, it helps to bring down fevers.” He swallowed thickly.

Yellow’s grip on him tightened. She was at an impasse. If she killed him it probably wouldn’t take people in town long to notice and come looking for him, long before Blue was well enough to travel, and if she let him go chances were he was going to run straight to town and get help.

Damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.

With an irritated scoff, she dropped him, dropping back onto her hind end and leaning against the wall. 

He slid down the wall, trembling and clutching at his throat, looking at her with eyes still wide with terror. 

She kept the blade clenched tightly in her fist, in case he decided that he was brave, though just by the look on his face she knew he wasn’t. 

Without a word, he stood shakily and ran out of the barn, she listened to his frantic footsteps fade before her whole body sagged tiredly.

They were as good as dead now.

She pressed a hand against her face, and an aggravated hiss escaped her lips.

They couldn’t run if they wanted to. Blue was unconscious and Yellow was tethered to her.

Yellow squared her shoulders. Stalwart as ever, she wouldn’t cut herself loose. She’d rather her convictions get her killed than prove herself a liar and a coward, even if no one else would ever know, she would know. 

Within a few minutes, the steps were back and Yellow steeled herself, knife in hand. She might go down, but she’d be damn to the darkest, deepest pits of the sea if she went down without a bloody fight. 

The boy appeared again, a bottle in one hand, but nothing else, much to Yellow’s surprise. He eyed her nervously as he knelt down on Blue’s other side.

“I can give her this…” His voice shook as he held it up for her to see. Yellow only growled in response. As good of an answer as he was going to get. 

He carefully lifted Blue’s head and pulled the cork on the bottle and slowly poured some of the dark green mixture into Blue’s mouth. It’s thick, medicinal smell filled the small space between them.

Yellow watched his every move and he seemed hyper-aware of this by the slow and carefulness of his movements as he plugged the bottle back up and slowly set it over by Yellow.

“Give her some of this every few hours until her fever breaks.” He instructed, glancing up at her nervously from beneath his hair that was sliding in front of his face. "I'll come check on both of you later…" he slinked out of the stall and Yellow listened to his steps fade before she let herself relax.

She couldn’t even begin to understand what that was or why he wanted to help two ragged-looking strangers squatting in his barn, if that was in fact, what he was actually doing. She picked up the bottle and inspected it. It certainly looked like any bottle she’d ever see a doctor use. She set it back down at her side and turned to Blue. 

She seemed to be partially conscious now, awakened by the no doubt foul liquid being poured down her throat.

Her eyes were cracked open and they were looking around sluggishly before they fell on Yellow.

Her mouth moved like she was trying to say something, but no words came out. Yellow turned too better face her, waiting to see if she would say anything. 

"You can't put the rum there…," she grumbled under her breath, eyes flickering around.

What?

Yellow stared, face contorting into clear confusion as Blue gurgled under her breath. 

"Whales will drink it…,” she warned, voice low and scratchy.

Yellow blinked at that. 

Her fever was making her delirious. That wasYellow’s only explanation for the absolute nonsense coming out of her mouth.

“Go back to sleep,” she grumbled, pulling her coat back up to Blue’s neck. Luckily she did just that a few minutes later after more nonsensical mumbling about barrels and whores.

Yellow leaned back but there wasn’t going to be any relaxing, not now that that boy knew they were here. 

Whatever was in the bottle didn't smell like poison to her, it did however reek of very strong herbs though. She hummed thoughtfully to herself. 

It was some hours later when a sharp pain in her wrist dragged her out of her half-asleep state. She opened her eyes to see Blue looking up at her, though Yellow could already tell by her eyes that she was no more lucid then she had been before. She was moving around, jerking on their linked cuffs, wincing as well whenever it seemed to dig into her wrist, but her eyes were locked on Yellow’s bare right arm.

This was further proven when Blue reached her left hand up, slowly, like her arm was too heavy to lift.

She reached over and ran her trembling fingers down the raised up scars on her arm.

“Notice that did you?” Yellow grunted quietly, gazing down at Blue before glancing at her arm.

The seared impression of a crude skull and crossbones with the words ‘Momento’ above it and ‘Mori’ below it.

A brand, old and seared into her flesh long ago. 

Blue ran her trembling, clammy fingers over the raised up scars. 

“Do you even know what that is?” Yellow cocked a brow as she looked down at her companion, who didn’t seem to be listening; lost in her fever clouded mind. “It’s the brand of indentured servitude in Martinique.”

Blue didn’t say anything, not that Yellow expected her too, though her cloudy cerulean eyes moved away from the rough, healed brand to look at Yellow, her soft fingertips dragging over the scars sent a chill up Yellow’s spine.

Something about Blue’s faraway gaze and the way her face seemed to sag as she started slipping back into unconsciousness spurred Yellow to keep talking if no other reason then to fill some of the silence that had been so oppressively hanging over them as of late, even before Blue had gone unconscious. 

“I’ve had this a long time…,” she trailed off, thinking. It had been a long time since she had let herself think about this in great detail. “Since I was a child in fact... To get by I stole anything I could get my hands on if it meant I didn’t go without… and there were still plenty of nights I went to sleep hungry. It’s like that, being an orphan on any of these islands,” she snorted, more to herself than to Blue. 

“I let myself be taken in by someone, thought of them as a mentor, someone I could trust. The same woman who taught me all those tricks you were so interested in…” Yellow's face screwed up. “They convinced me to steal for them…petty things at first, just like I had done before, but eventually it became less petty and reached the point of no return, and when I got caught she threw me to the wolves and I wound up with a life sentence of indentured servitude.” she scowled to herself, looking at a point in the distance, caught up in her memories, reaching up to run her arm.

Blue hummed, drawing her attention, her eyes were open, gazing up at Yellow, but the blonde knew she wasn’t there. Something about speaking this aloud gave Yellow some sort of relief, though she couldn’t pinpoint what about it exactly. 

“Obviously that didn’t last. Pirates attacked the ship I was enslaved on and I went with them when it was over…” She smirked to herself, but Blue squirmed, flushed face contorted and she frowned as she looked down at her.

“That sly, seductive way you manipulate people reminded me of her. It’s why from the moment we met I didn’t trust you…,” she mumbled, as she fingered the cuff on her wrist, dried blood flaking off the metal as she ran her hand over it. She glanced over at Blue’s right arm, which had slid from beneath her coat, much in the same worn and bloody condition as her own. 

“Maybe I was wrong…,” she grumbled under her breath, covering her arm back up. 

She had been so caught up in her thoughts that Yellow never heard the approaching footsteps until the same young man from before was standing in front of her a loaf of bread in hand.

“Um, am I interrupting?” he asked nervously, gaze flickering quickly between her and Blue.

Yellow just grunted, biting her tongue when the urge to tell him to get lost rose automatically to its tip. 

“I brought you some food.” He slowly held the food out to Yellow. Who narrowed her eyes at him, staring hard at him for a few long seconds before he seemed to get what the look was about and ripped a chunk out of it and ate it himself before holding it back out, this time Yellow took it.

Seeming to accept this as some sort of invitation he knelt down, though smartly, beyond Yellow’s reach, which made the blonde’s lips twitch at the corners. He had some brains at least.

She tore into the bread. She was sick to death of hardtack.

“I’m Greggory, but you can call me Greg.” He introduced himself with a smile. Yellow chewed on the bread silently. He didn’t seem to recognize her or Blue. No reason to chance it by giving out names. She just gave a quick nod and he seemed to deflate a little realizing she wasn’t going to return the introduction. 

“What happened to her?” He nodded to Blue. 

“We were caught in the storms for days,” was her curt reply as she gnawed on the bread. 

He looked at them both carefully.

“Are you sailors?” he finally asked, eyes wide, and Yellow nearly choked on the food in her mouth. 

“Yeah…,” was all she said once she’d managed to swallow it. She and Blue were sailors after all; the semantics were unimportant. 

“I’ve always wanted to be a sailor…” Greg grinned brightly. “Adventure on the high seas… instead of being stuck here, plowing…” 

Yellow snorted and he frowned. 

“Not everyone is cut out for life on the sea, boy.” She smirked and he flushed. With anger or embarrassment, Yellow was unsure. 

“I’d be great on a ship!” he insisted. “It’s not like I’m not used to taking orders for nearly nothing here on this farm.” He scowled.

“Being a farmhand is better than starving.” Yellow shrugged, taking another bite of bread.

“Not here…,” he grumbled. “I need excitement, adventure, not potatoes! I’d give anything to get on a ship and sail away from here…” 

Blue chose that moment to groan, making them both turn to look at her as she squirmed in place.

“Do you need anything for her?” he asked, looking back to Yellow. 

“Why do you want to help?” Yellow couldn’t stop herself from asking, distrustful, and direct was simply her nature.

He blinked back at her, surprised.

“Well…” He scratched her head thoughtfully. “If I can, why shouldn’t I?” he shrugged. 

Yellow narrowed her eyes, staring intently at him for a long moment before exhaling sharply through her nose and grunting in acknowledgment.

“There’s nothing to be done until she gets well enough to walk again…” Yellow grumbled. 

“Ahh.” He nodded to himself. “Guess you two must be close if you won’t leave without her, care about her,” Greg said more to himself than to Yellow but the blonde’s face lit up at the statement, head whipping to face him, mouth open, about to start shouting but she couldn’t think of anything to say, jaw working soundlessly before it shut with a snap. 

Greg just blinked at the odd reaction.

Yellow scoffed. She didn’t have the patience to explain herself to anyone, much less some clueless farmhand. It also occurred to her that from their current position he couldn’t see the shackles that linked them together. 

It was better he didn’t, lest that raise a lot more questions. 

“Even deathly ill, she’s really pretty…” Greg cocked his head and again amber eyes settled on him, though he quickly picked up on the glare. 

“I, uh… better get back… I’ll come check on ya later…” With that, he quickly scampered away 

Once she was sure he was gone Yellow relaxed again. He seemed fairly harmless but that was no reason to let her guard down. She took the fabric off Blue’s still hot forehead and rewet it, then leaned back, still chewing on the bread as the rain continued to fall outside.


	12. chapter 12

When she woke the next morning Yellow was relieved to find that beneath the wet fabric, Blue's forehead was cool and her face was no longer flushed and contorted with fever.

Finally, the first sign of their turning fortune in days. She sighed in relief to herself that Blue seemed to be sleeping peacefully now, no longer plagued by fevered hysteria or fitful unconsciousness.

Greg came and checked on them several times during the day between his fieldwork, bringing food or a bucket of fresh stream water, Yellow still wasn’t sure what to think of him, but he certainly had his uses. 

She managed to keep the chain and cuffs hidden from him anytime he came by. He'd proven rather magnanimous so far, but there was no telling how he would behave if he knew who they were or even just that they were on the run, so Yellow was careful to keep her left arm and the chain hidden. While hiding one she, unfortunately, couldn’t hide the other, but he didn’t seem to know or maybe even take notice of the brand on her right arm. It was just as likely he simply didn’t know what it was.

He was still the least of her problems though. 

Though her fever was gone, Blue still didn’t show any signs of waking and Yellow frowned as she watched her sleep for two solid days now, barely moving. She continually forced water down her throat.

She knew that fevers like Blue’s could often do irrevocable damage to the mind. She’d seen it happen a lot as a kid, If they didn’t outright die they sometimes weren’t the same afterward, slower; never really all there again.

Yellow stiffened at the idea but didn't let herself dwell on it. There was nothing to be done about it but wait and see once Blue finally woke up, however long that may take.

She gently turned the cuff around her wrist and winced when it came unstuck from the bloody and raw skin beneath. 

Every day it cut a little deeper into her skin, with no chance to breathe or heal any, she could already tell that it was going to scar when she finally got it off. 

Which couldn’t happen soon enough.

Yellow grumbled to herself as she picked at the flaking blood that had stained the metal, leaving a constant, biting, metallic smell to linger. Her wrist ached constantly now, but the worst of it happened whenever the metal was pulled tight against her wrist. 

It was early evening on the third day since Blue’s fever had broken, and the sun had started to set, long orange rays of light were pouring into the barn through the grimy and broken windows, casting long shadows across the floor and walls as the sun dipped out of sight, below the horizon. 

She squinted against the bright light as it shined directly on her face. She was in no mood for bright sunshine to be honest.

"Your face will stick that way…"

Yellow’s head whipped to the side so fast her neck cracked with the motion.

Blue was staring up at her from half-lidded eyes, one corner of her mouth twitched up.

"You're awake," Yellow's voice was low, almost in disbelief. "How do you feel?" 

"Like I got run over by a wagon…," she grumbled, but slowly started to set herself up, pushing the blonde’s jacket down to her waist. Yellow put a hand behind her back, keeping her stable.

"How long have we been here?" She ran a hand down her face, trying to rub away any lingering sleep.

“Four days”

Blue groaned at the answer. She felt so drained and despite all that time spent in unconsciousness, she was still tired, though she didn’t feel a fraction as deathly ill as she had before. 

In fact…

Her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, causing one of Yellow’s dark blonde eyebrows to canter upward as she looked at her.

She was starving. 

Without a word, Yellow picked up the half-eaten loaf of bread Greg had brought her earlier that day and held it out to Blue, who was quick to take it and start ripping off mouthfuls.

“You’ve been asleep for three days, slow down before you choke.” Yellow rolled her eyes. She hadn’t taken care of her all this time just for Blue to choke herself to death on a loaf of bread. 

Blue made a noise around her current mouthful but did slow down, if for no other reason then to drink from the cool water in the bucket at their side. 

Yellow watched her devour the bread within a few short minutes before sitting back against the stall wall with a sigh.

“That’s so much better,” she mumbled, closing her eyes. Yellow hummed.

"We need to get out of here," Blue said after a minute.

"You only just woke up after four days, can you even walk?" Yellow frowned at the idea. She was just as eager to be out of this place and out of their cuffs as Blue was, but she wasn't willing to risk further dangers by jumping right to it.

"I still feel weak…," she admitted. "But we've wasted too much time…" she frowned, opening her eyes and turning to Yellow. "If you'd cut me loose as I told you, you'd probably already be back on your ship…" she was frowning and staring at Yellow with a look she couldn't describe. Yellow pursed her lips. She could see an unspoken accusation in those bright cerulean eyes.

_‘You care’_

"You don't tell me what to do…," Yellow huffed, like a petulant child, turning away from Blue with a frown.

Blue chuckled at this.

Her levity was short-lived as the sound of footsteps made her jolt up, but Yellow recognized the gait.

“It’s alright,” she mumbled, covering their hands and the chain with her jacket.

“Hey, I found some…" Greg stopped when he saw Blue, sitting up, and looking at him with wide eyes. "Hey, you're awake!" He grinned brightly.

"This is Greg," Yellow introduced. "You’d probably be dead if not for him."

“Oh?” She blinked, turning to the young man. “I suppose I owe you my thanks then.” 

“You were in pretty rough shape, I had to help.” He planted a fist on his hip as he smiled down at her. 

“Aren’t you sweet.” Blue’s voice had that flirtatious lilt as she smiled that smile she was known for, one that was well reputed to bring men to their knees; making Greg flush brightly and Yellow frown deeply.

“Oh, uh…,” he laughed nervously, eyes flickering over to Yellow who was glaring at him with sharp amber eyes and he swallowed thickly. Neither noticed Blue looking at the blonde out of the corner of her eye.

“Don’t mention it…,” he mumbled, looking anywhere but at the blonde, glaring holes straight through his head.

Blue’s flirtatious grin turned to one of smugness. 

“Everything alright?” She asked, turning to look at Yellow, but the tone was a knowing one that Yellow immediately picked up on and felt the back of her neck grow hot. She grunted sourly in response. 

“I’m fine,” she grumbled, turning to look at the wall rather than either of them. Blue made another knowing noise that only further deepened Yellow’s frown.

“If you think you can walk we should leave at daybreak…” She turned, still frowning, to Blue, who nodded, and while she still had that smug smile on her face didn’t say anything more. She had learned the signs that meant Yellow was about to be tipped over the edge and now wasn’t the time to be prodding her. 

“Sure you're well enough?” Greg asked, face turning concerned. Blue still looked rather haggard to him.

“We’re on a time restraint and we’ve wasted too much time already.” Blue frowned, looking back up at his concerned face. 

“Where are you headed?” 

“To town, we need to get on a ship.” Yellow supplied.

“I can take you to town in the morning. I have to take some crops for sale anyway, You could ride in the back of the wagon, no problem,” Greg offered.

Blue and Yellow glanced at each other. That was certainly better than walking the last few miles to town, especially with Blue still weak, she needed to conserve her energy for when they had to steal a ship.

“That would be great, thank you, Greg.” Blue thanked him with a smile that was far more neutral and Yellow felt her ire simmer down.

“I’ll bring the wagon around at sun-up so they don’t see you…” He glanced at Yellow, more specifically the bright blonde hair atop her head. Blue and Yellow both seemed to pick up on this, causing the blonde to frown again and Blue to giggle behind her hand. 

“I’ll see ya in the morning.” Greg gave a little wave and disappeared behind the stall wall, Yellow listened intently until his steps had faded from the barn.

They were so close to finally being out of this situation. Her wrist seemed to throb with this thought. 

She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't notice Blue looking at her out of the corner of her 

Now that she wasn't inching her foot over the threshold of death's door, the last actual conversation she and Yellow had was once again brought to the forefront of her mind.

She still didn't know what to say to Yellow, she hadn't really had any time to think about it before all thought had been toward her flagging health. 

Something else that would have to be pushed back for now. Maybe something that really wouldn't need to be brought up again if Blue could help it. 

~ ~ ~

At sunrise, a rickety wooden wagon pulled by an equally rickety gray horse pulled up in front of the barn, with Greg holding the reins.

Yellow had explained the night before that he didn't know who they were, nor any of the particulars of their situation, and Blue agreed that it would be better if they didn't tell him. 

With her coat slipped back on over her now sleeveless shirt, they wrapped the excess chain around their arms and stood close, if Greg thought their proximity was strange as they loaded into the back of the wagon between the bales of hay he didn't say anything about it.

The trip into town was bumpy and rattled the two of them around relentlessly on the pothole infested dirt road. The constant movement made their cuffs rattle and rub against their skin.

Yellow gritted her teeth and held her tongue. They were nearly there, she had to endure the constant sharp pain the cuff caused only a little while longer.

Blue seemed to be of the same mind, that and she was still slightly out of it after being unconscious for so long. Her strength was still trying to return and she needed it if they were going to steal and sail a boat themselves.

Blue peeked over the hay bales as they rolled into town, from what he could see so far, there didn’t seem to be any royal navy presence in this town, not that she could see, she also didn’t see any wanted posters, not for the two of them at least. 

Hopefully, this would be painless and they could head straight for the Grenada port where her sister should be waiting on The Menagerie.

Greg slowed to a stop on the road that ran along with the docs and the two wasted no time climbing out. 

"We appreciate all you've done for us, Greg." Blue smiled up at him. Yellow nodded in agreement.

"Ah, don't mention it." He grinned. "Take care!" He waved as he spurred the horse on again.

They waited until the wagon had vanished from sight before heading down toward all the boats, sitting tied to the docks. 

"He was sweet…," Blue said and Yellow made a noise in her throat Blue knew to be a sound of acknowledgment.

They moved down the docks, inspecting the ships. Most far too big for the two of them to sail themselves. 

"There…" Yellow nodded toward the end of the dock, and tied to it was a small catboat. At fourteen feet long it would take a little longer than normal to sail to Grenada, and left them open to attack on the open sea, but it was the only thing the two of them could possibly operate tethered together. 

They shared a look before making their way over to it, Yellow palming the knife in her coat pocket.


	13. Chapter 13

The strong winds pushed the boat through the water at a quick clip. They had lucked out that this small sailing boat was quick and agile as it cut through the water in a spray of mist. Mercifully it had been empty as well, so they hadn't had to drop any... unwanted cargo over the side to start with. It was always easier if you didn't have to start with a mess. 

At least in Blue’s opinion. She preferred not to have to leave a boarded ship a bloody murder scene if she could help it, though it was sometimes unavoidable. 

Yellow was sitting with the map spread across her knees, the corners of the paper flapping in the breeze and doing her best to track their trajectory and estimate when they might make landfall. Not the easiest of tasks in the day with no stars to guide them or with no compass to help her accurately measure anything, but Yellow was a more than experienced sailor and navigator, as was she, but it was just easier to let Yellow do it than have a pointless argument about it when she didn’t care that much to do it anyway. 

She preferred to let Holly do all formal course charting, Blue just picked the destinations more often than not. Though when she wanted to be alone she would steer the ship herself.

Whoever this boat had belonged to had taken good care of it, she could tell just by the sheen of the deck and the intricate and well-done knots in all the rigging. By a few of them, she would have to say someone who at one point had been in the navy.

Yellow grumbled to herself as she moved, the fingers of her right hand trailing slowly across the map, trying in vain to accurately plot out their course. 

Blue smirked to herself watching from the corner of her eye before turning back to look at the ocean as they sailed through the water; nothing as far as the eye could see but water and sky. 

Just the way she liked it.

This was probably the most relaxed she had been since this entire debacle had started.

The ocean was the only place that had ever really been home to Blue. She could remember quite clearly every torturous day she had spent landlocked before she had found her true calling at sea.

She stared out at the waves, the salty spray on her face, along with the sounds of the water, and the wind whipping through her hair created a white noise that pushed her mind into that quiet, contemplative place as she thought about those days that she would rather leave behind her.

Even then the sea had been her greatest source of comfort, though in a very different way.

She'd had the most spectacular view of it from one of the windows in the downstairs sitting room. From the fainting couch pushed against the farthest wall, she'd watch the waves break against the rocky shore below the ridge the house sat atop in flashes of white foam for hours. The sounds of the water rushing over the stone and sand were one of the only things that eased her mind. 

Rose sometimes sat at her feet playing on the smooth, pale, cedarwood floor of the parlor. 

She'd smile down at her and the ten-year-old would grin back at her before going back to whatever game she had concocted for herself, totally unaware of the situation they found themselves in every day in this house by the sea. 

Which was exactly as Blue wished to keep it, though, it wasn’t to be, she simply hadn’t known it at the time. 

Sometimes they would play ‘I spy’ despite the fact that they had long ago run out of new things to spy in the never-changing room. There were other rooms, but more often than not servants would be nearby, watching, and she trusted none of them, a lesson she’d learned the hard way.

More importantly, this room offered the best view of the sea from inside its blush-colored walls

Every day here made her wish for something else, anything else, anywhere else.

Days passed by nearly unaccounted for were it not for the physical changing of the seasons she witnessed outside the windows. The changing of the leaves in autumn and the ice and snow that followed in the winter. 

She felt like a specter, moving about the houses three stories and multiple halls and rooms aimlessly, like she was lost on the other side, looking for the purpose that would finally let her rest in peace, her dark crimson gown trailing behind her wherever she went. She’d long ago stopped caring about dragging it through the dirt and dust of the floor. 

He didn’t like that and scolded her for it whenever he caught her. 

The second-floor balcony also had a spectacular view of the ocean and the new 'lighthouse', as they called it, that had been newly constructed several hundred yards out in the water.

She was rarely permitted outdoors though, and the view was not worth the risk of what might happen were she caught. Even the two first floor porches on either side were off-limits to her.

She was to be seen only when he allowed it, which was rarely. 

Thus, she was relegated most days to the fainting couch and the window that looked out over the ocean, wondering what lay beyond the horizon line and wondering what it would be like to see it for herself. 

Ringed fingers fisted into the fabric of her trousers.

"Are you feeling ill?" 

Blue was jerked from her memories by the question. 

Yellow was looking at her with furrowed brows and dare she flatter herself by saying, worry, in those bright amber eyes. 

“I’m fine,” she assured with a smile. Yellow just stared back at her for a long moment before humming and turning her gaze back to the map in her lap with a pointed glare that made Blue grin.

Always so serious, but she had to admit, it was charming in its own way. One knew exactly what they were getting with Marigold “Yellow Diamond” Faust. She was blunt, brutal, and straight to the point. 

With hidden talents and depths that Blue had never really considered before now. 

Her smile fell away, lips pressing into a straight line as she thought about something, it had been eating at her off and on since she’d woken up but she hadn’t yet had the chance to say anything, they had been a little preoccupied after all.

While she had been out of it, for the most part, she had a very clear memory of being half-awake, and watching herself, as though she were watching someone else’s hand reach up and run their fingers over the brand on Yellow’s arm.

She’d sailed around the Caribbean enough to know that brand, but her mind had been too foggy to figure out what she was looking at at the time, much less speak. Her mind had since cleared up 

In very rare form Yellow had given where she hadn’t even been asked, granted she thought Blue was so fevered that she probably wouldn’t remember, she had still shared something with her that seemed to have incredible significance to herself and for once, Blue felt guilty.

She doubted Yellow would have ever shared that information with her if she thought she had been lucid enough to remember and guilt about it was strangely eating at her insides. 

Blue could probably count on one hand how many times she had felt guilty about something since she had first set sail, and all of them had involved her sister in one form or another. 

Not to mention there was still the matter of her damned drunken rambling and how rum made her lips much to loose for her liking. 

There seemed to be more and more unspoken things between them every day for two people quite literally chained together.

She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, glancing back at the blonde from the corner of her eye. 

Amber eyes roved over the map, glancing up occasionally to look at the sail, gauging their heading

Blue sighed to herself, leaning back as she turned her gaze back to the sea. She didn’t have it in her to start the kind of conversation any of those things would make.

There was a small island coming up in front of them, more a large pile of rocks and dirt than a true island. Past that, a barely visible smudge on the horizon.

Blue squinted into the distance.

“What is that?” she mumbled to herself, before turning to Yellow and tapping her leg. “Give me the spyglass...” She held out her hand. Yellow grunted, pulling the tool out of her coat pocket and handing it to Blue, but otherwise didn’t lookup.

Peering through the glass, Blue could see that the smudge in the distance was actually a large galleon ship, at the top of its mainmast was a solid white flag. 

Who was flying a flag of surrender?

A chill shot down Blue’s spine and it was an effort to make her mouth and lips do what she wanted.

“Marigold…,” her voice came out barely above a whisper, the lump in her throat blocking most of her breath.

Yellow’s head jerked up, hearing not only her name but the dramatic shift in Blue’s tone.

“What is it?” Her face contorted into concern as she rolled up the map and slipped it back into its bottle. 

Blue swallowed thickly and simply held the spyglass out to Yellow.

The blonde took it and peered out at whatever had made Blue turn so pale. 

Her spine stiffened as she spotted the ship sailing the white flag.

“White Diamond…,” she breathed before tearing the looking glass away from her eye and shoving it into her pocket. “We need to change course, now!” 

They moved as quickly as the chain allowed them and changed course to the opposite side of the small island they had been coming up on and let the ship wash ashore.

They stayed low, and silent, after a while they saw the large galleon flying it’s solid white flags sail by a way beyond their small hub.

“I’d heard she was in the far west, terrorizing Jamaica and Port Royal…,” Blue mumbled as they watched the infamous ship grow smaller and smaller in the distance, the knot that had suddenly tied itself in Yellow’s belly slowly coming loose as it was once again a smudge on the horizon line.

“It seems she's back…,” Yellow sneered, still looking out into the distance.

White Diamond, that was it. Just White Diamond. 

If she ever had another name, no one knew it, not anymore. There was only the moniker that every other pirate in the Caribbean knew her by. That and the tell-tale white flags she chose to fly. 

The white flag, traditionally a symbol of the bearer’s surrender, but not on White Diamond’s ship. It was a sign that any encroaching ship should surrender, or be destroyed down to the last man. 

Though Yellow knew for a fact though that there would be total slaughter on any ship White Diamond boarded, regardless of any previous surrender. Surrendering to The Prism was as good as standing before a firing squad.

She’d been terrorizing the seas since Yellow had been a child, she couldn’t believe she was even still alive and was still the most feared pirate anywhere in the Caribbean. 

The ‘Diamond’ moniker she had had for years was the reason that She and Blue had garnered their own similar epithets. 

White had been the only well known female pirate for years, when Yellow had come along, with her amber eyes and bright blonde hair and a name like ‘Marigold’, and people had been quick to saddle her with “Yellow Diamond”. The same could be said for Blue a few years later,’ Ciel, with her cerulean eyes and penchant for the bright cobalt colors in her wardrobe, had quickly been titled “Blue Diamond” by friends and enemies alike.

She had seen White Diamond only once, with her own eyes, years ago. 

She was the reason Yellow had left the first ship she had ever sailed on. She had attacked it, killing everyone on board. Yellow had only barely escaped.

She unconsciously reached up to rub the scar on her forehead, an old, hot, hatred bubbling up in her gut.

Yellow had been quiet for a long while, and Blue looked at her questioningly, but Yellow seemed to be lost in thought, running the fingers of her right hand across the scar on her forehead. 

“It should be safe to go…” Blue stood up, dragging Yellow from her thoughts with the slight tug of the chain that made both of them flinch. 

“Yeah…,” Yellow mumbled as she stood, her hand falling away from the old but still very distinct scar that bisected her brow and disappeared into her hairline. 

They managed to get the boat pushed off the sandbar and back out into the water, though it was no small feat, especially climbing back in while being tethered together by the wrist. 

The saltwater splashed up against their legs and arms, seeping beneath the cuffs and burning the tender flesh. 

Once the sail was back up, it was quickly positioned back in the right to direction to have them sailing back toward Grenada.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know everyone's been waiting on this chapter.

Yellow laid back, face upturned toward the sun as they sailed along, after an entire day and night at sea in this tiny ship she was more than ready to make landfall.

For multiple reasons.

She felt small and vulnerable on the open sea in this tiny vessel, she wanted to be back on, and in command of her own ship, and most importantly of all, she wanted this fucking cuff off!

She clenched her fist, testing the strength in her hands. At least that was still good, though it still hurt. 

Her wrist never ceased to throb over the last four days. Blood and dirt were caked around the outside of the cuff, and she grimaced, she had done her best to keep it clean when such a thing was possible, which had not been very often throughout this misadventure she had been on.

At one point, she had poured some of their rum over it, the burning was unimaginable, but at least it was a little cleaner looking.

Blue had been lost in thought for nearly the entirety of the trip, sitting quietly, staring out at the ocean. It was the quietest Yellow had even seen her, save for the day right after her drunken rambling. However, she chalked some of that up to her, at the time, worsening health.

The weather had stayed perfect, fair winds and calm seas, and other than their sighting of White Diamond, they hadn't seen any other ships to worry about.

She knew they had to be close now. She chafed at the closeness of not only her freedom but returning to her ship.

She wanted a bath, a change of clothes and to sleep in her bed again, but more importantly just to be by herself in the solitude of her own quarters again.

Being chained to Blue had been an ordeal, to say the least.

She was just as frustrating as Yellow knew her to be, at first.

Once they came to an understanding about Blue's mind games and trying not to murder each other, things seemed to smooth over, not entirely, of course, that was just the type of personalities they had.

Yellow was well aware she was often more severe then she needed to be, she was sharp and rigid, took herself much too seriously, most of the time really; let her pride lead her even when it was unnecessary.

Blue, in contrast, was smooth, flexible, and most of the time, quite fanciful, didn't seem to take anything too seriously if she could help it.

That, aligned with her flirtatious and coy tendencies, causing them to clash quite heavily by nature.

Yellow wouldn't deny, though, at least to herself, that the conflicts of their personalities gave their interactions a certain… heat, she didn't have, nor ever had with anyone else.

The several times Blue had ended up kissing her over the last fourteen days or so came to mind.

Yellow sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. That was something that still needed to be dealt with; where to even start?

She hadn't even decided how she felt about the entire thing. She already knew how Blue felt, and that was at least half the battle; the other half was her own feelings, something she had never been terribly attuned with and actively ignored most of the time actually.

Annoyance and anger were the two emotions Yellow was most in tune with, neither of which were helpful in this situation. The last time she had let herself feel things like this had ended very poorly, indentured servitude poorly.

She hadn't even considered entertaining those kinds of feelings again. Yellow only needed to be burned once to learn her lesson.

That had been a very long time ago though… she had been a child for all intents and purposes, prone to the missteps of a child and letting those emotions roll over her better judgment. 

She was not a child anymore.

But when she wasn't doing something maddening, Blue had a way of just… being, that tried hard to push that better judgment out the window, she had a long list of ways over the years that she could look to for proof of that.

If they were going to have this conversation, it would be after they had been freed from each other and not a moment sooner. Yellow was nothing else, if not pragmatic. She wanted to have any exits available to her when or even if they ended up having it.

She sighed, pushing all those thoughts away for now, again. She didn't have the energy for these thoughts right now. She closed her eyes and let the warm sun soak into her skin, trying to clear her mind of all the loud and cluttered thoughts all vying for her attention.

A sudden tug of the chain made her wince as Blue sat up. Yellow frowned, peeking through one eye at her.

She squinted into the distance at something, left hand held up to shade her eyes from the glare of the sun.

"What?” she grunted, letting her eye slip back closed.

"Is that it?" Blue asked, which made both amber eyes pop open and fling herself up to sit and started to dig the spyglass out of her coat pocket.

She peered through the smudged lens.

On the horizon, she could see it.

The many docked ships on the pier of Grenada.

"That's it…," Yellow breathed a sigh of relief.

"We made it!" Blue jolted up, momentarily forgetting herself and jerking Yellow off the bench and digging the chain into their wrists, making both grimace and hiss in pain.

Yellow glared, and Blue had the good graces to look embarrassed at least, though her excitement was still palpable.

"Sorry…," she mumbled, and Yellow grunted in response. 

Once they managed to right themselves, they adjusted the sails and were heading with the wind straight toward the port.

~ ~ ~

The minute the boat was tied down securely, Blue was pulling them onto the docks' rickety wood planks by their linked hands. Yellow could only just keep up with her quick steps as she practically sprinted up the pier, looking at all the ships moored there.

Neither of them immediately saw the distinctive silhouette of The Menagerie among the ships, and Blue's excitement ebbed some.

"It has to be here… there were still two days left…," Blue said, mostly to herself.

"I'm sure it is…," Yellow hummed, looking around. If ever there was a ship she could recognize at a glance beside her own, it was Blue's.

Blue frowned as Yellow took the lead, pulling her along between all the ships, but Blue was now lost in her own thoughts.

Had they ever even come to Grenada? That was always the plan, but she knew Rose was never up to being the captain of The Menagerie, she wasn't the most assertive of personalities.

Had the crew decided to go on without her despite Rose, no doubt insisting that they wait?

She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Had Rose still gone along with them? Had they left her as well? Blue trusted her crew with her life, but now her anxious thoughts were in a frenzied whirl in her head.

Yellow pulled them to a stop, and Blue looked up.

Sitting at the end of the docks was The Menagerie, just as it had been the last time she had seen it.

A bright grin broke out across her face, lighting up like the sea after a storm had cleared away. Yellow smirked just before Blue was once again pulling them excitedly across the pier toward the ship.

The gangplank was already lowered, and Blue wasted no time racing onto the deck with Yellow dragging along behind her.

It didn't take long for the crew to begin to notice.

"The Captain!"

"The Captain's back!" The deck was soon filled with a cacophony of noise as the crew of The Menagerie started to crowded around their wayward captain with bright grins and laughter.

Yellow was tense as Blue's crew squeezed in around them, especially as they quickly began to take notice of her.

They would look at her and mumble to each other, not looking as friendly as they had before.

Yellow quietly fisted the knife she still had in her coat pocket, she didn't particularly want to get into a fight she knew for sure she couldn't win. Still, she'd be damned if she just let herself be taken out by anyone without a fight. 

There was a commotion among the crowd of sailors, and suddenly Rose was pushing herself through the much larger men and women of the crew.

"Ciel!" The younger woman cried out before leaping on her and jerking both her and Yellow.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" Rose sobbed into her sister's chest as Blue wrapped her arms around the younger woman. The chain coming unfurled from her and Yellow's arms to allow her the space to squeeze her sister close and bury her face into her curly pale brown hair.

Blue didn't even realize there had been a horrible knotted mess in her stomach until her arms were wrapped tightly around her sister and it was coming undone, allowing a sense of easiness to wash over her.

When Rose pulled back, she finally took notice of Yellow, standing only a scant two feet away.

"Y-Yellow?!" She blinked, noticing finally, the chain that connected the two captains by the wrist. "Have you been chained together this whole time?" she yelped.

"Yes, and I'd like to be out of it, so if you would?" Yellow scowled at her, causing the gathered crew to begin grumbling and moving around them.

"Just cut off her arm!" someone in the crowd cried, followed by the cheers of agreement.

"No one's cutting off any limbs!" Blue barked, and the crew immediately quieted before she turned to Rose. "Can you pick them?" She held up her wrist and showed Rose the cuff, who flinched when she saw the dried blood on and beneath the moving metal.

She reached into the leather pouch at her waist and pulled out two long, thin pieces of metal and slid them into the keyhole, moving them about, the clinking of metal sounds were the only ones on the ship before a solid clank, and the cuff fell away, the chain clinking loudly as it swung, held aloft by the cuff still attached to Yellow.

Her skin was raw and dirty beneath, dark dried blood all around her wrist, but Blue sighed in relief.

"Yellow's too…" She nodded to the blonde, prompting Pink to give her a look, but the one Blue returned didn't leave any room for argument. Rose would get an explanation later that was certain.

She quickly worked to unlock the cuff around the Blonde's wrist, and it finally fell to the deck in a loud, heavy clatter of metal.

Yellow flexed her hand, the fresh sea air on her wrist stung, but she was finally free.

Still stuck on Blue's ship though, always a different hurdle to cross.

"Where was The Cluster last seen?" Blue turned to Rose, who blinked at her with wide, surprised eyes.

"It was here until two days ago, I heard they were headed to St.Lucia."

"Then we're headed for St.Lucia,” she declared. “We're going to drop off Yellow Diamond," she announced to the crew, they seemed to hesitate before she frowned and barked again. "Prepare to set sail!"

They jumped to work dispersing to their places across the ship.

Yellow and Blue shared a look before Blue was again facing her sister, who had the most confused look on her face Blue had ever seen and couldn't help but grin.

"What happened?" the younger woman finally asked.

"I'll explain it all in my cabin," she promised with a grin.

~ ~ ~

She was hidden from sight behind the raised platform where the ship wheel was, standing on the small area between it and the railing.

Yellow took a long drink from the bottle of rum she had been nursing for the last half hour as she stood at the stern of the ship, watching the moonlight shining on the waves The Menagerie was leaving in its wake as it sailed toward St.Lucia.

They should be there just after sunrise if they kept up this clip. She set the bottle on the railing and gently ran her fingers over the cloth bandage wrapped around her left wrist.

The small, quiet woman who served as the doctor aboard The Menagerie said she was lucky to get it off when she did and that she had managed to keep it somewhat clean; otherwise, they would probably be cutting it off instead of wrapping a bandage around it instead.

With another sigh, she picked up the bottle and took another long drink. She was tired and just enjoying the solitariness of the moment after being glued to someone's side for so long.

Speaking of… Blue had disappeared into her cabin just as the sun was setting along with Rose and hadn't come out. She assumed she was telling her sister what all had transpired in the last fourteen or so days.

Yellow was still thinking about it all herself as well; now, they were free. There was still the one large matter between them that honestly, Yellow didn't even want to get into because she still didn't know what to say.

She grunted to herself, listening to the ocean's sound when quiet footsteps made her jerk up, shoving her hand into the pocket of her coat where the knife was still sitting, in case she needed it.

"It's just me…" Rose stood there, holding up her open hands. Amber eyes flickered over her before she leaned back down on the railing, hand wrapping back around the bottle of rum. Still, her eyes stayed glued to the pale hazel ones staring back at her.

Rose stayed where she was several yards away and didn't seem to have any inclination to come any closer.

"What do you want?" she asked simply.

Rose pursed her lips, seemingly chewing on whatever words she had come to say before finally spitting them out.

"I wanted to say thanks… Blue told me about everything, everything that happened to the two of you. So, thank you for taking care of her when you didn't have too…"

She held the younger woman's gaze for a moment longer before jerking her head once in a nod before turning back toward the notion.

Rose hesitated at the apparent dismissal, unsure if she should say anything else or go, but a hand on her shoulder made her look up as her sister came around the corner.

"Better leave her alone, she can be snippy," Blue smirked. Rose glanced back at the blonde before nodding and rounding the corner back toward the deck.

Yellow sighed.

"What do you want, Blue?" she asked tiredly, not turning around to face the other woman.

Blue frowned as she looked at Yellows back, the blonde stayed standing at the railing, facing the dark and quiet ocean.

"Just to talk…," she finally said. No flirtatious tone or witty quips, just a simple request.

Yellow finally looked at her over her shoulder, regarding her quietly for a long moment before making a grunting noise that Blue knew to be a reluctant allowance. She walked up to the ship's railing and leaned down beside her.

They stood next to each other in quiet for a long while, the occasional sloshing of the rum in the bottle as Yellow drank from it.

Blue knew what she wanted to talk about, a few things actually, but where to begin? Yellow didn't seem eager to say anything at all.

She finally spoke just as Yellow was starting to raise the bottle once more to her lips.

"How long were you an indentured servant before you became a pirate?" she asked, and Yellow froze, bottle halfway to her lips.

"You remember that?" she asked after a long silence.

"Yes, it's about the only thing I remember after you started carrying me," she said, and Yellow hummed.

"About seven years," she finally said after another loaded silence. "I'd never been so glad as the day pirates blew that navy ship into scrap wood…," she spat.

"I get the distinct impression that the woman that ended up getting you put in chains was more than a mentor to you…" Blue tested and by the heated glare in those amber eyes when Yellow whipped her head to look at her, she knew she had hit it dead on. It was no wonder then that Yellow was so reluctant and distant with her when she'd been literally thrown in chains by the machinations of someone else she had cared for, someone of a similar personality to Blue.

"Sometimes, the most painful lesson is delivered by those masquerading as our hearts," Blue lamented, and Yellow could tell just by how it was said that she was quoting something, though she didn't know what. "It's no surprise to me now that you don't trust me as far as you can throw me," she chuckled ruefully.

Yellow frowned but couldn't stop herself from speaking.

"I wouldn't say I distrust you that much anymore…" Yellow's voice was low, but Blue heard it nonetheless. She glanced at Yellow, the corners of her lips quirking upwards.

"Oh? You don't think I'm a seductive snake anymore?" she questioned with a grin.

"A snake? No." Yellow said, taking a drink from her bottle, ignoring the cheshire grin Blue had on her mouth, immediately noticing that Yellow said nothing about the 'seductive' aspect.

"I'm curious, whatever happened to that woman?" Blue asked. Yellow snorted, a sneer pulling at her face.

"I don't know, but she can rot in the depths of hell for all I care," Yellow grunted, turning her gaze back toward the dark ocean. 

"Oh, you're not bitter at all…" Blue grinned, eyeing her companion as she scowled, but said nothing in response. "Regardless, you told me something I know I wasn't really meant to hear… and I've felt rather… guilty about it ever since," she admitted, leaning her arms on the solid wood of the railing. "I feel like I owe you something in return."

"You don't owe me anything, Blue," Yellow mumbled, swirling the liquid in the bottle, not looking at her.

"Maybe not…," Blue agreed. "But I feel like I do, and that's all that matters to me."

Yellow grunted, taking another long drink out of her nearly empty bottle of rum. If Blue wanted to spout some facts about herself, Yellow wasn't in the mood to argue about such a trivial thing.

"I was married once," Blue says, voice carrying out in the quiet night air. Yellow choked violently on the liquor she just inhaled instead of swallowing.

"What!?" She whips to face Blue when she's done hacking and coughing up a lung.

"Oh? I thought you weren't interested?" Blue smirked, turning to her. Her face is only just visible to Yellow under the light of the full moon, shadows playing across the smooth curves of her face, that smug look especially, but for once she's not near as annoyed at Blue for turning the tables on her as she is interested in this new little fact.

She still gives the other captain a sour look, face flushed from her coughing fit, and Blue can't help but grin.

"I was married once," she repeated. "Years ago. He was obscenely rich and from a very affluent aristocratic family." She turned back out to the ocean, the moonlight glinting off the waves the ship created in its wake. "I despised him." the words were delivered in such a monotone and careless way that Yellow wasn't sure what to say in response.

Blue seemed to see this on her face.

"My father sold me to him to be his bride, Rose too. More money and two less, not son, mouths to feed," she explained with a shrug.

"What exactly was so despicable about him? Isn't marrying a rich man what most women aspire to?" Yellow asked, looking at her curiously. Blue scoffed.

"Many do… and maybe I could have lived with it all the rest of my life if it hadn't been for a few things… besides the fact that in my life I've had as much interest in men as you have..." she grinned, and Yellow rolled her eyes but didn't refute the statement.

She turned to look up at Yellow, those amber eyes were trained on her, moonlight bouncing off her golden irises.

"Beauty was the one trait I possessed that made me worth anything to anyone… I was a pretty little bauble…, bought and kept to be seen and admired by his friends and enemies alike…and be used by him when he so felt inclined to… relieve himself." Blue made a face.

"I was a prisoner in his home…," she finally said after a long moment of silence. "I was only allowed outside the house when he allowed it. Stepping foot outside at all without permission meant consequences…," she trailed off, and Yellow narrowed her eyes.

"He beat you?" she guessed; she had a hard time imagining Blue cowering before anyone, no matter the circumstances.

"At first…" Blue nodded. "But it didn't take long for him to realize that it didn't matter to me what he did to me… but the first time he beat my nine-year-old sister for something I had done, I knew I was truly a prisoner…and I stayed that way for five long years." She turned back toward the sea., leaning down on her arms.

"How did you escape?" Yellow had to ask.

"I killed him," was Blue's simple answer.

That sounded more like the Ciel Doyle Yellow knew.

"I suppose I had been compliant long enough that he decided I'd been broken and didn't need to use Rose to control me. He was going to sell her off to marry into another family when she was fourteen," She scowled, eyes directed out into the distance.

"I stabbed him to death in the middle of the night…," she finally said. "Took as much money as I could carry along with Rose, and set the whole fucking house ablaze. It was quite beautiful, actually…" She leaned back up, hands pressing against the cold wood. "...watching my prison by the sea burn to the ground till all that remained was smoldering ashes," the tone of her voice was almost wistful.

"That sounds like something you would do," Is all Yellow can say in response to the story, which causes Blue to burst in loud, unrestrained, laughter that seems even louder out here in the dark.

When she laughs herself out, she turns to Yellow, a mirthful grin still on her face.

"I suppose it does… I used that money to buy this ship...and the rest is…" She shrugged, running her fingers almost longingly over the smooth wooden railing. "Now it's just things that have to be done to get by in the world… but I prefer this life to that one."

Yellow hummed, watching her.

"We both became pirates to break loose of forced bonds and be free…," she trailed off, looking down at her bandaged right wrist, matching the one on Yellow's left. She seemed to be chewing on her words thoughtfully.

Yellow waited, she couldn't help but notice how the moon made Blue's silvery-white hair glow beneath its light.

"I haven't been with anyone since I was married…" she said suddenly, the sudden turn in the conversation startled Yellow.

"You?" is all she can manage in a disbelieving voice. 

"Yes, me." Blue rolls her eyes but doesn't seem at all offended by Yelow's disbelief. "All people have ever wanted from me was my body, my looks… so I learned to use that to my advantage… obviously it hasn't earned me the most sterling of reputations…," she admitted, clearly referring to Yellow's previous, stalwart distrust of her, among other things. "But Yes, it's been quite a while since I'd even entertained the notion…."

Blue turns to her and Yellow can only believe her because if nothing else, Blue has been nothing but good to her word, and she has no reason to lie about this, there is nothing to be gained from it.

"I didn't think after everything that happened in that house that I ever would either… until I met you, Marigold." she finally admits aloud. After nearly a week, they are no longer dancing around the subject hanging over them like a cloud of ash. Still, Yellow is no better prepared for what to say to her now than before, especially not with Blue looking up at her like that.

"I didn’t mean to say all those things that night… but they are true,” she admitted, looking into the blonde’s eyes. “Something about you has always been… captivating.” She finally decided on a word. “You’ve never been swayed by me… you are never anything but good to your word…, you could have made things so much easier on yourself and just cut me loose when I told you too, but you didn't…" her voice stuttered. "You carried me, took care of me and I don't know a way to explain to you what that means to me, Marigold." She finished and the look she was giving Yellow was one she could not describe.

Yellow's stomach was a mass of knots.

"Ciel…" she started, the name rolling off her tongue in a way it never had before, and something about it caused static to sizzle across her skin. Blue obviously felt it too, she took another step closer, and the space between them shrank to nary a sliver of moonlight.

Her hands moved without her consent, to hold the sides of Blue's head before sliding down to her neck, thumbs pressing into the hollow space just behind the sharp angle of her jaw. Blue says nothing. Her hands reached up to grasp both forearms on either side of her and looked up at Yellow with those cerulean eyes, ones that had haunted Yellow in several ways over the years, both awake and asleep. 

She breathes out, and it's heavy and ragged. She's sure Blue can smell the rum on her breath just before she covers her mouth with her own. It seems this is precisely what the other woman had been waiting for as her hands move around to grasp the back of Yellow's coat in her fists.

Her hands are now on Blue's waist, and she's shoving her back against the wall of the platform, fingers digging into her hips and Blue moans into her mouth when she's sandwiched firmly between the wall and Yellow, one hand threading between the golden strands of hair and holding tight.

Yellow growls at the tugging and Blue seems to melt against her in response.

Their panting when Yellow releases her mouth only to trail open-mouthed kisses down the column of her neck.

"Marigold…," Blue breathes out in a high pitched, keening, whine. It strikes something in Yellow's core.

Too many emotions hit her all at once, ones that Yellow is not accustomed to having to deal with, especially not so fast and heaped upon each other in a messy jumble that makes one indistinguishable from the others.

It’s too much, too fast.

She panics.

She breaks away from Blue, putting distance between them until her back hits the railing, and Blue is looking at her with eyes full of confusion and a hint of hurt as she pants.

"I can't…" Yellow shakes her head, unable to look at her any longer.

"Marigold…"

"I'm sorry, Ciel…" She just shakes her head and hurries away, leaving Blue standing alone in the darkness as the sound of her boots on the wood fade.


	15. Chapter 15

At sun up St.Lucia had come into view on the horizon and Yellow was more relieved then she could describe. She was ready to be back on her own ship, but more importantly she was ready to be off The Menagerie.

She had sat out on the deck the entire night. She didn't trust any of the members of The Menagerie outside of Blue and Rose not to stab her in her sleep… that and there was the precarious situation she found herself in with Blue at the moment.

They had not spoken nor shared a glance since their encounter the previous night. She couldn’t look at her and she didn’t know what to say after she had run away from her last night.

Yellow leaned against the railing of the ship, arms crossed over her chest, glaring at the ever slowly approaching island port and stewing. She was mad at herself.

Mad at herself for being an idiot and a coward; for running away from Blue.

She hissed through her teeth at herself and turned to look at her feet, eyes narrowed, her wrist was throbbing this morning. 

She sighed heavily and looked up, watching the crew go about their daily chores of swabbing the deck and tightening the rigging.

The captain’s cabin door swung open and Blue came strutting out. She evidently changed clothes and brushed out her hair, it hung loose across her back and shoulders, a few braids scattered among the straight strands. She looked fresh and clean again for the first time in weeks and Yellow couldn’t help but watch her, despite the knot of shame and embarrassment that taken up a semi-permanent home in the pit of her stomach.

Blue glanced around and for a brief moment their eyes locked, but the look in those cerulean depths made Yellow turn away, eyes going back out to the ever approaching island, jaw clenched tight and shoulders bunched up around her ears.

She didn’t look up again but she heard Blue move away, unable to look up at her face again.

How quickly it seemed she could turn something that was already a mess into one of even greater proportions.

She could only assume that Blue was less than pleased with her, she knew she would be were their places reversed. 

Her whole body tensed, fists clenched as she kept her arms crossed, drawn tight up against her. 

She wanted to talk to her, to try and explain what had happened last night but she had no real explanation for it herself. She hadn’t had enough time to think about it.

It was just too much too quickly for her.

Yellow couldn’t remember the last time she had been so physically enthralled by someone as she was with Blue, probably because she never had before. 

Blue had a special talent for getting under her skin, both in the irritating sense and the… less irritating sense.... 

She was exceptional at setting fire to every nerve ending in the blonde’s body and causing her mind to phase in and out of coherent thought whenever it suited her to do so.

Yellow scowled to herself. That was one part of the problem though.

Yellow hated not being in control of herself and Blue excelled at making her brain turn into goo, for relatively short periods of time but that was much too long for Yellow. She felt like a fool standing in front of Blue, something else that irked her incredibly.

What’s more she was sure Blue did not understand that Yellow had absolutely zero experience to draw from for this particular facet of life.

After joining her first crew she had completely spurned all emotions like that, all they had done was get her branded and chained, she actively spent the majority of her adult life repressing them, they had never served any practical purpose to her. 

So last night, with everything finally laid bare between them, Blue’s hands sliding through her hair and the high pitched call of her name in a voice that set fire to the blonde’s skin without any effort, it had all been too much. 

Like an errant spark from a fire into a barn hayloft.

Blue set her on fire. Everything was a smokey haze and the fire spread so quickly she wasn’t sure where to focus on first and instead panicked and ran.

She scowled angrily to herself. So many emotions that she wasn’t used to all vying to be at the forefront of her mind and Blue’s fingers on her scalp and hot breath in her ear had just caused a complete and total shutdown.

Blue brought out a plethora of emotions in her and she’d had all night to evaluate them more closely, one by one rather than all of them in the span of a few seconds.

It was hard for her to put an exact name on it, considering their previous relationship and years as… less than friendly acquaintances. She wouldn’t say enemy because all her enemies were at the bottom of the sea by now, but her feelings for Blue were there, a complicated and unnameable mish-mash of annoyance, attraction and fondness that she couldn’t describe, but they could at least all be summarized quite easily. 

She wanted Blue, in a multitude of ways. 

But had been too panicked to capitalize on the opportunity when it had finally, truthfully, represented itself to her last night. Blue practically offered herself to her, only for her to turn and run the minute it happened. 

Now she didn’t know what she could even begin to say to make this right with Blue, or even that she should try. 

She would not beg, she had made a mistake but maybe Blue was past the point of forgiving her and she had her pride, it would not allow her to bend a knee to Blue and beg for a second chance. 

No, she had made her bed, now she would have to lie in it.

No matter how much she hated it.

~ ~ ~

When the ship pulled into port the crew went about their duties of tying things down and dropping anchor. Though Yellow could tell just by watching them that they didn't plan on staying very long, just long enough to drop her off.

Luckily, at the other end of the docks she could see it.

The Cluster

It looked just the same as the last time she had seen it, for which he was glad, because a small part of her did worry that the crew fighting amongst themselves may have destroyed it. 

The gangplank was lowered and Yellow looked up as Rose approached her, Blue stayed where she was on the other side of the ship, arms crossed over her chest and watching. The look on her face was one Yellow could only describe as hurt. 

The younger woman looked rather nervous and twitchy as she stopped just a few feet from Yellow.

“You better hurry off,” she finally said, nodding to the plank, making Yellow blink. Rose glanced over her shoulder and Yellow understood.

Blue wanted her gone, and quickly.

She didn’t blame her at all. She couldn’t stand to have Blue looking at her like that another moment. It dug painfully at something in her chest.

With a jerk of a nod she turned on her heel and started off, pausing just a moment, to look back at Rose, who still looked more than a little pensive, words on the tip of her tongue.

‘Tell her I’m sorry.’

That’s what she wanted to say, but she didn’t, she couldn’t

She swallowed them, even as they threatened to stick in her throat and carried on down the plank, it took effort not to look over her shoulder, but she didn’t and instead made a beeline straight for The Cluster.

The plank was down and Yellow hurried up it. She was quickly noticed and the same shouts that had echoed on Blue’s ship now filled the deck of The Cluster as the crew noticed the blonde appear on deck almost immediately.

“Captain!” 

“Your back?”

“You’re alive!?” 

When all the yammering pirates gathered around her had calmed down enough to let her talk she explained where she had been to them, though the heavily edited version. There are some things her crew, nor anyone else, ever need to know about her chained adventure on the sea. 

Jasper is exceptionally glad to see her and once things settle they ask her where they’re headed next and Yellow smirks to herself.

She had a debt to repay.

But a few things had to be taken care of first.

Her jacket was practically in tatters, as was her shirt. Her gun and saber had been taken away and her hat had vanished.

A trip to the markets was the first order of business.

~ ~ ~

With a bath, change in wardrobe and armed again, Yellow felt far better, despite the gnawing in her stomach that appeared whenever she thought of Blue, but that was something to examine later. She had another matter to attend to at present.

Yellow walked through the woods with Jasper and Joe on either side of her as they approached the farm house.

The barn door swung open and Greg appeared, a sack of grain slung over one shoulder as he muttered curses under his breath.

He swung around to face them and jumped, the bag falling off his shoulder as he stared at the three with wide eyes, his jaw ajar as dark eyes flickered between the three of them. 

“Y-you!” Greg finally seemed to get a handle on himself as he pointed at Yellow.

“I have an offer for you, Greg.” The blonde started without preamble.

“Offer?” He blinked.

“You want to sail, don't you? Well I happen to find myself in need of a new cabin boy on my ship.” 

“Cabin boy?” he repeated dumbly and Yellow rolled her eyes 

“Yes. Do you want it or not?” She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked down at the shorter young man.

“I do!” He jumped. “I… don’t even know who you are…” he trailed off. Yellow had forgotten about that little bit. 

“Are you daft?” Her first mate couldn’t contain herself any longer. “This is Captain Marigold Faust!” Jasper snarled out and Greg’s face stayed frozen in a look of confusion before slowly morphing into one of disbelief and awe.

“You’re the infamous pirate, Yellow Diamond!” He squawked, hands slapping the sides of his face.

“Yes, and you did Blue and myself a service and I’m not in the habit of leaving my debts unpaid. Do you want to sail under me, or not?” She narrowed her eyes at him. She had spent enough time on land lately and she was quite eager to be back on her ship, away from here and so she could finally sleep for the next two days.

“I…” Greg trailed off, glancing between the pirates and then back to the farmhouse on the other side of the property. 

His still hanging open mouth shut with a click. 

“Yes” He nodded.

As they were walking back to the row boat out on the shore so they could return to the ship Greg had a certain thought.

“Wait… did you say Blue… like, Blue Diamond?!” He yelped remembering the sickly woman he had poured medicine down.

Yellow’s shoulders bunched up around her neck at the name being shouted out loud and her jaw clenched.

“Yes…” She managed to bite out. The two other large sailors at her side seemed to know better as they glanced at each other but said nothing while they followed their captain.

“That was Blue Diamond! Wow… even sick as a dog she was still just as beautiful as they say.” He said more to himself but stopped when the loud growling sound came out of the blonde. Greg looked at the tall women's black coated back. She didn’t turn around but Greg could practically feel those scary amber eyes on him and quickly shut his mouth.

“Let me offer you some advice.” The large, bald sailor had slowed down to walk beside Greg. “Don’t talk about ‘Ol Blue when the Cap’n is around,” he said quietly. Greg nodded dumbly, watching the blondes back, face scrunched up in confusion. 

Once they were back on the ship Yellow made a beeline for her quarters with orders for Joe to show Greg the ropes and to set sail. Some merchant ships would be moving through the waters just north of them and they could use an easy job.

Once the door was shut behind her she hung up her hat and coat and flopped gracelessly onto the bed with a frustrated sigh.

Seemed no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t totally push away her thoughts of Blue. She’d been managing all day because her crew knew better than to mention that name in her presence but now the thought was stuck at the forefront in her mind.

She slung an arm over her eyes and sighed wearily.


End file.
